C'est la vie

C'est la vie. (French translation: Such is life.) Before I left for China, I was learning a lot about being patient. It didn't matter that I thought myself patient enough; my Papa taught me anyways despite my lack of understanding as to why I needed more patience. Simply put, I just knew that He was teaching me patience. And now that brings me up to today ...

Today, I had plans with three friends. One cancelled on me for dinner. One got lost on the way to my hotel and was very delayed. One decided to meet me tomorrow. Thus, I have spent hours waiting in my hotel mostly reading and enjoying a Chinese nap (they sleep here like in Spain after lunch for around an hour). I haven't been bored, but I have had to keep my mind and inner being engaged so as not to fall into the trap of boredom. As these hours have passed I have been reminded of two things. The first is this - wait upon the Lord. The second is very cultural - in China, time doesn't really matter or exist much. You may have noticed that I function on such a time frame in America. LOL :) I really love Chinese time, but if you are one who is very time-oriented, then you'll probably be frustrated here as what is important is not "being on time" but making it whenever "to the occasion."

In any case, all this waiting has really been pretty joyful. It has reminded me of what is truly important - Papa. It is He who has my friends networking to call me at the hotel and let me know what the current scoop is. It is He who helped me speak more Chinese today and find a true hole-in-the-wall dumpling shop for a fabulous lunch. I think I may have been the first Westerner to dine there. The family that cooked for me were really joyful at my stop, and the dad even cutely cleaned up his little boy so that I could photograph him. He didn't need the cleaning up, but it was fun to watch! Two passers-by even stopped when they saw me; one of the two literally pulled up a stool (from the dumpling shop) into the street/sidewalk to stare at me while I ate. I was pretty okay with that and reminded of how not okay with that I used to be. I think I need more room in my heart to be fully okay with it though. And today I also got to hear the first Chinese strangers say "hello" to me. They didn't scream it at me (which is common here) and that made things much nicer.

Just some things from my day. C'est la vie!