A Few Autumn Pictures

Ulster Folk Museum and the changing leaves.

Belfast Castle and the changing leaves.

Cave Hill and the pretty colors.

Not all those who wander are lost...

Greetings to all! Autumn has come in Northern Ireland. The weather is getting colder (yes colder than it already was to begin with) and the leaves are starting to change. We went to Belfast Castle today and the trees were just breathtaking with their changing leaves. While we were hiking up to the Castle that is just beneath Cave Hill in Belfast overlooking the sea, the leaves were ever so softly falling from the branches and it was just perfect. It was nice to do a bit of sightseeing today. We were celebrating one of my fellow YAV's birthdays and she likes to just walk around a lot, so Belfast Castle was just the place for us.

Things have been going well since I last wrote you. I unfortunately got the flu about a week ago and felt pretty miserable there for a while, but after talking to numerous N. Irelanders, the flu is a thing that all Americans catch while here. The climate is just so different here. It is really hard to go from living in the desert to living on an island. All of that to say that I am almost 100% now and hope that this will be my first and last time to have to get through the flu while I am here.

The newness of this place is quickly wearing off and we are all starting to realize the task at hand. While all of us know that this place will end up changing us much more than we will change it, we all I think hope to leave a little something behind in our travels. Weather it is the banana song that I have taught my kids at The Vine, or maybe a conversation with youth about change and peace...we all want to make a difference, give back to the difference Northern Ireland is going to be making on us. The stress of living here is very subtle, sometimes it creeps in and nothing seems to change. However, sometimes the stress gets to you in a crippling way. All of us YAV's this last couple of weeks have had something happen that just about sent us over the edge. This may sound funny, but it was a very good thing. It created a chance for us to look out for one another and this in turn strengthened our already strong bond with each other and the ones that we work with. My "breakdown" was getting so sick. Those of you who know me know that I usually get sick when I have pushed myself to hard. This is a hard thing to learn from. I keep telling myself that I will learn not to push it that hard again...then I find my next challenge down the road and I am in the same situation all over again. Old habits are hard to let go...aren't they?

I thank you all for your letters and e-mails, comments and words of encouragement. They mean more to me than you will ever know.

These past weeks I have found peace and grace in so many things. Like Nichole Nordeman says in her song called "grace"..."grace finds beauty in everything." That's just it there, to be able to see peace or grace you have to be willing to open your mind and your heart to the prospect of it being in everything. Peace has come this week in a group of kids singing, the leaves falling, the few sunny days we have had, and in feeling better after the flu. I find more and more that peace is something that not only N. Ireland is working for, but we all are working for. The questions still plagues me in my time here, what is peace? Is it attainable? What can I do to find peace? These are questions that I am taking from the community here and I am putting in my own life. I too, just like N. Ireland am looking for peace.

Peace be with all of you this day and all of the days to come.

Blessings and love-
Melissa

Hello all!

Hello there from Belfast. Things are going well with me. I am starting to get used to my daily life here and the many tiny differences vs my life in the U.S. As you become more accustomed to the life that surrounds you, you find that you miss things and notice differences that you did not even think about when you had them, now that you are without them.

Little things here are different like cooking. As I tried to bake a cake for my roommate Jess's birthday I found that the ingredients of the cake here are harder to find. I ended up having to go back and forth to the store trying to get it all right. It turned out to be a blob of a cake, but it was made with lots of love! Haha! We had fun last night celebrating her birthday together! Some other things that are different is the drastic changes in the temperature. It can literally change seasons four times in one day here in Belfast. You can start out with a mild, sunny morning, that slowly turns to clouds and rain, then to wind and sun, then to hot, then to bitterly cold! This is new to me.

I learned how to bleed a radiator this last week. We got our heat turned on this week in the house and I quickly noticed that mine was not getting hot at all. I called around a bit and ended up getting directions to bleed the radiator. This is a slow process...I probably could not tell you why it worked, but it thankfully did!

Work has been busy. I am starting to make some really good friendships with co-workers and people that I work with as well. The kids are challenging here. Some are wonderful, don't get me wrong, but behavior here is a bit of a problem. I have never had to kick anyone out of anything in my life, but this last week I had to kick 4 fifteen or sixteen year old girls out of my program. It felt strange and sad, but it was necessary. I can't say a lot more than that because this is a blog and anyone can access it!

It is starting to hit me, missing home that is, and the inevitable homesickness. I think that I just realize now how far away everyone seems. It is my Dad's birthday next week and I am sad that I am not going to be there. This is the first of many things that I am going to miss this year while being here. It is good to start this process of homesickness. The way I think about it is that if you are homesick, that means that you have an awful lot of blessings in your life that you miss. I do indeed have so many people that I miss. I am so very lucky to be able to miss people and places the way I do.

Something that I am also realizing is that doing something like what I am doing changes you and the people around you in so many ways. I think that it is changing me the most though. Although I am here to help, to influence, to change others, I get the sneaking suspicion that I am being changed much more than I am in fact changing others. I think that if you realize that about life, you are the better for it. I always knew that I would be shaped by my experience here. I just did not know by how much.

Peace this week has come in many forms. As I am constantly looking for peace in this strange place that I am getting to know, and the people that I am getting to know, I see facets of peace in small ways. Much like grace, I feel times of peace in my own life as well as see peace emerging in this place of unrest. Peace came in the form of a few minutes of silence with just me and my guitar this week. I had a few minutes just to myself to play my guitar and watch it rain. It was healing, it was just what I needed. Peace and grace really are in everything. It is in the sun that shines on my face while I walk to work. It is in the moments of stillness that our body yearns for but rarely gets. May you find peace and grace in the little moments in your life this week.

All my love-
Melissa