More Gifts from the Sea: Island Living

"...living in Madagascar means less visitors and fewer options for neat vacations, no big animal safaris. However, as i'm sure i've mentioned before, i am glad for the opportunity to challenge myself and my children to learn another language. I am VERY thankful for the slow pace of life in Madagascar, even in the capital city - for the limited options we have for entertainment and consumerism, for the small missionary community which forces us to work hard at relationships and look past insignificant cultural and theological differences." Jocelyn's blog, April 09

In light of what i wrote a few blogs ago i found it lovely to read similar thoughts from Anne Morrow Lindberg on the same topic. She even refers to "her island" which, in her book, refers to a small island where she goes for a vacation retreat. My island, however, is where we've relocated for a significant portion of our lives... the concepts still hold though, for the most part:

"My island selects for me socially too. ...I see people here that i would not see at home, people who are removed from me by age or occupation. In the suburbs of a large city we tend to see people of the same general age and interests [or denomination, or socio-economic level]. That is why we chose the suburbs, because we have similar needs and pursuits. My island selects for me people who are very different from me - the stranger who turns out to be, in the frame of sufficient time and space, invariably interesting and enriching. ...Out of the welter of life, a few people are selected for us by the accident of temporary confinement in the same circle. We never would have chosen these neighbours; life chose them for us. But thrown together on this island of living, we stretch to understand each other and are invigorated by the stretching." 54-55

"The difficulty with big city environment [and small towns] is that we tend to select people like ourselves, a very monotonous diet. We tend not to choose the unknown which might be a shock or a disappointment or simply a little difficult to cope with. And yet it is the unknown with all its disappointments and surprises that is the most enriching."55

I reckon that's a reason why i thrive in missions overseas, because i enjoy those unknowns even though they do stress me out. :-) In a small environment like a missionary community in a country not your own, you are forced to get to know people you would never otherwise choose to hang out with due to many varied reasons. Furthermore, the missionary community selects for you not only people from different social strata, but also different cultures and countries, different denominational backgrounds and theological traditions. If you are brave enough to delve into the richness that is the varied family of God to taste and see that the Lord is Good, then, in my experience, the discomfort and unknowns are paid off by new adventures in living that are hard to come by any other way.

"In so many ways this island selects for me better than I do myself at home. When I go back will I be submerged again not only by distractions but by too many opportunities?" (to be sure, it is inevitable in my experience at least) "...by too many interesting [people]? The multiplicity of the world will crowd in on me again with its false sense of values. Values weighed in quantity, not quality; in speed, not stillness; in noise, not silence; in words, not in thoughts; in acquisitiveness, not beauty. How shall I resist the onslaught? How shall I remain whole against these stresses and strains?" 55

indeed.