Christmas. Here already.

You can feel the onslaught of darkness beginning to descend around 3pm in Edinburgh these days. Yes, we are well and truly into the winter months in Scotland now. However, there's no snow. No ice storms or freezing rain (are these one in the same?!). No winter storm warnings, no storm team 8 extreme weather watch (keeping YOU informed of all the most important weather changes!). Nope. Mostly it's windy, dull, and damp.

And the pre-Christmas madness has also descended on Scotland. Princes Street, the main shopping street in Edinburgh is busy enough at the best of times, but now it is positively nuts. People everywhere. Shoving. Pushing. Buying. I have to say I have been rather taken aback by the Christmas madness here. You see, we don't have a Thanksgiving holiday in Scotland (for obvious reasons...) so we go from Halloween, straight into Christmas. It's weird.

The other odd thing is the lack of availability of religious Christmas cards in regular stores. The UK has become so secularised that you have to go to special shops (usually charity stores such as Oxfam) to get cards with Christian references to Christmas. Not that this is a bad thing - sending charity christmas cards is what one does here. Usually at least 10% of the purchase goes to a designated charity. No bad thing.

I will be blogging more about Christmas in Scotland as time goes on, but I hope this serves as a taster for now!

Thanksgiving

A few minutes ago, I spooned some cranberry relish into my mouth. The taste of thanksgiving came flooding into sight and all of a sudden I was craving turkey like nothing else!

We have opted to have our thanksgiving meal tomorrow, Friday. Since Turkey Day is a uniquely American holiday (for very very obvious reasons!) there is no day off for us this year. Therefore, the thought of hosting hte meal on a 'school night' was a bit much to bear. We have 10 people coming round to our flat for the occasion! Half are American, half are Scottish. The turkey is defrosting (and I am freaking out about nasty poultry bugs), the cranberry relish is 'maturing' in the fridge, the pumpkin pie is almost done. Our dining room table and Brian's drawing table are tableclothed and pushed together to make room for our guests. The plates and cutlery are set. And it feels good!

There's a feeling of familiarity about all of this that I am loving. We have our iTunes on shuffle and much of the music we grew to love while in the States (often through Paste Magazine) is piping into our kitchen. We love to host people in our home. Sometimes I think that Brian and I are at our best when we are doing this together. We enjoy, and gain energy from thinking through our menu, and preparing the food. Our creativity flows as we set the table and make it look inviting. Our desire to make people feel at home is put into practice as we welcome folks into our home. We've long felt like hospitality is one of our gifts and tonight I feel that more than ever.

Now, there are two other things about Thanksgiving I would like to note. First, the fact that many Scots are well aware of this day, and actually talk about it. Admittedly, some of that I encounter through my friends who know that Brian is American. However, it seems that the general public has a general awareness of the holiday. It's not surprising given that most things American make it onto the radar of the Scots. The other odd thing about today is that this is the first time for 8 years that I haven't had this day off. Very strange feeling.

Well, I leave this post with a note of the things for which I am indeed truly thankful... Brian, this flat and our landlords, a sense of settling into our life here... my job... Brian's job - which allows him some time to work on his photography...friends - here and abroad... and, inevitably, God. For being God and all that entails for us humans who are the recipients of his Amazing Grace.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
Fi & Brian xx

Yoga

I am sitting in the kitchen munching on organic almond and raisin muesli and seeds. It's all can think to eat. Anything else just seems wrong. You see, I have just spent an hour and half in a rather intense yoga classs... and it feels GOOD! December saw me take my last yoga class in the Grand Rapids YMCA with floor to ceiling windows looking out over the city. Since then I haven't done any yoga. I have to admit, I was nervous at first - would I remember the moves? Would I just get cramp? Would I seize up, fall over, or trip? Reality was much more kind than that! I actually managed the whole class! It wasn't perfect, and there are a few things I need to practice, but I am apparently less out shape than I thought. Hooray!

Tonight was a milestone in the move for me. I started doing yoga while I was in the States and it is there I developed a love for it. This evening, I felt as though I had come home. I was back in a familiar routine. Filling the Nalgene bottle and inevitably spilling the water. Pulling on my old grey yoga bottoms. Pulling my hair back. Shuffling along the road in my slip-on 'earthy' shoes with my mat bundled under my arm. Standing on the edge of the mat with the scent of essential oils shimmering through my sinuses. Bending my body into shapes, poses, an twists. It all felt delightful. I feel more like 'me' tonight. Of course, there is every chance I will be in intense pain tomorrow when I wake up, but I am armed with a hot water botle and Ibuprofen!

I was shaped during my time in the USA and sometimes I forget that. There are things that I grew into that made me more who God created me to be. Tonight I was reminded of this as I re-entered the world of Yoga - which found me in the States. It's easy to wander into life here and segregate the Fiona from the USA from the UK, but that would short-change my time and experience there. I believe I am to solder both lives together and continute to grow, and be shaped.

Isn't this what we followers of Jesus often do? We hold our faith in one hand - our spiritual lives, our love for God - and in the other, we hold on to the bits of our lives that we're not willing to integrate with our faith. Grafting our lives into our faith is what we are called to do and it's only when we do it that we are fully alive in faith and life.

At home this weekend!

In complete contrast to my activities of the last few months, I spent all of today at home doing housework. Here's what I did today:
6 loads of washing (all dried on the clothes line)
Ironed a few loads of clean laundry
Cleaned our bedroom (dusted, polished, tidied, hoovered, washed the sheets etc...)
Cleaned the bathroom
Talked to two friends on the phone
Talked to my dad on the phone
Cooked dinner (roast chicken, mashed sweet potato, green beans and fruit cobbler)
Washed dishes
Dried dishes

It felt like a lot, but looking at hte list it doesn't seem like all that much after all! I blog about this to make the point that for the past few weeks and months we've been so busy we've hardly had a chance to properly clean. It would have been fair to say that our flat was approaching squalor! It felt good to get my hands dirty and to now have a lovely clean abode. the past few months have been full of cultural activies (Greenbelt, Edinburgh Fringe/Festival), travel (Belgium, London, Kent), work related events (youth conferences, leading seminars etc...). I am enjoying the chance to just be at home! Ahhh...

This week I had two speaking engagements in a Lanarkshire school. I was speaking to two Religious Education Classes about the reliability of the Gospels. I had to hire a car to get to the school. The cool thing was that I got to take the car home at night so that I was ready to leave again the next morning for RE class number two. Therefore, I drove into work one day this week. I was sitting on Dundas Road, in a queue for the right hand turn onto Queen street - ready to rev into gear to edge forward when the lights turned green when I had a wee revelation. I have not driven into work since I worked at Calvin Theological Seminary. Here, I either get the bus or ride my bike into work. We don't own a car, and if I did, I wouldn't drive it through Edinburgh morning traffic anyway. So, I was sitting on Dundas Street when I realised that I suddenly felt very disconnected from the city. I missed the bus - even the smelly number 22 (why DO people insist on 'letting everything out' on a crowded bus?!?!)And that is when it struck me: I have become part of the city. Sitting in that car, I felt removed from community - a cast-out, a rebel. I had shut myself off from the rest of the community of Edinburgh that day by simply getting in my car and driving to work on my own. I literally felt like I was in a bubble and.. although I could tell you any day what individualism is, I suddenly FELT it like never before!

There is a rhythm and community to cities. Every day I sit next to a complete stranger on the bus - yet I sit pretty close to that person on the small space allocated for two people. I join a mass of Edinburgh residents making their way to work. Listening to iPods. Reading The Metro. Opening up a new novel. Phoning into work. Catching up with mates about the night before. Gearing themselves up for the work day. This is one of my rhythms as a city dweller, and I like it! Maybe one day we will move to a rural rhythm or small town rhythm - but for now, I intend to live into Edinburgh's rhythm.

My Annual Flashback

The other morning, while blowdrying my hair, I had my annual flashback. This happens every year, around the middle of September. It's usually during the first chill of the fall hits. That cold can hit me from anywhere - an open window, first step outside in the morning... either way, it's the same every year: I am transported back to September 1999 when I first moved to the States. I have such strong memories of that time in my life that the first chill of the fall always reminds me of that season. I can remember staying with the Kuhn family. I can still recall the comforting sweet smell of their home. I remember sitting in a chilly office figuring out a new email system and flickng through youth ministry resources. I remember looking for a flat with Jackie and 'shopping' for furniture at the city mission. I can see the shop and save and picture where to find the frozen juice (something I found fascinating!) and the dollar bargain aisle. I can almost taste apple cider from the Spring House, and homemade brownies at coffee hour. The list could go on. Every year it is the same - strong memories of that first few months in Washington Pennsylvania. I think I will miss fall in the states. For one, the leaves are definitely more spectacular. Edinburgh just doesn't have as many trees! We don't do seasonal ritual here because our seasons kind of blend into one. While I hate things like Hobby Lobby's overload of seasonal merchandise I love the fact that seasons are recognised more significantly. I will miss pumpkins and 'mums on doorsteps. I will miss houses lit up at Christmas. I will miss driving through town and enjoying the creations - allbeit many of them OTT and tacky - in gardens, on houses, and doorsteps. I will miss the feeling that we are distinctly moving to a new season. I will miss moving my summer clothes to another closet and sorting out my fall attire. Instead, we will drift into autumn and wander into winter.

As for the fashback to that other distinct season in my life, there is a lot more I could say on that subject. But one thing I know for certain is that I have come quite a distance since then.

Home

They say it takes eighteen months before you feel settled in a new place - and certainly I can't say I feel totally settled in our new life. However, I have begun to notice a sense of belonging about being in Leith - and in our flat particularly. Perhaps it is because 'the nights are fair drawing in' as fall approaches and 8 pm is no longer as bright as 5 pm. Perhaps it is because our flat looks more lived in these days (especially since it hasn't been cleaned for some time!). Either way, I have started to feel as though I am breathing out and settling in. The other day, as I watched Brian leave on my bike to cycle to the gym, and after that, the store, I had this incredible sense of belonging to this area of edinburgh, this town, this life. I think that part of it is that we have developed routine. It's a well known fact that we humans often thrive on routine and ritual. It appears to give us a sense of rhythm in life, and predictability is settling. I think that is what's happening with me and Brian. As the autumn approaches, I am glad that we have routine. The short days and chilly air can feel hostile - but to have rhythm and routine feels comfortable and familiar.