Autumn

Lange Voorhout in Den Haag

Sophielaan Den Haag

Autumn in Den Haag is said to be the wettest time. I'm finding this out the hard way! There are days when rain comes out of nowhere and there are days that look like there should be rain, but it just never comes. I'm getting into the habbit of carrying around an umbrella with me- just in case. Other than the rain, autumn has brought with it the beautiful change in colour of leaves that is the signature of this season. Although this happens in Australia, I can't ever remember it happening on the same scale as here. Leaves are changing colour and falling all over the place. The funny thing is that it's come all of a sudden. One day trees were all green, then the next day there's so much colour it's amazing. Soon there won't be any leaves at all!!

The other thing that Autumn has brought is colder weather. Although the end of summer wasn't exactly warm, I'm already in the winter coats I would wear in Australia. Scarves and boots are also a must. The scary thing is that this is just the beginning! It's only going to get colder as the year continues. Before I know it, winter will be upon me and I'll be in thermals and thicker jumpers/coats. The only hope for winter is the hope of snow. But I'm getting a bit ahead of myself here. Today I went for a lovely walk in the autumn weather and took photos of the scenes unfolding in front of me. It was a beautiful day to see God's amazing creation- and believe it or not, it wasn't raining!

Culture

I've had a few conversations with people lately about the differences in culture between Australia and the Netherlands. I think it's a hard question. I've been here now for just over 2 months, so you would think that I've had enough time to know what some of the differences are. But for the life of me I can't seem to work them out. There may be a couple of reasons for this:

1. I'm not an observant person. I'm not very good at observing people and analysing what they're saying. I don't think I can distil out the culture behind what people say and do.

2. I've lived here before, so I find it 'normal'. I think this may be a big factor. I feel very at home here, and I think it's because I've had more than these last 2 months to get to know how things work in the Netherlands.

3. There's not much difference in the cultures. This may be true, but I'm not really sure. I think Australian and Dutch culture are more similar than many other cultures though.

I think I will have to try harder to discover the culture...

Thankful?

I believe that in every day life we tend to do a mixture of 3 things:
1. We take for granted our lives and the things that are in them
2. We complain about the things that we wish we had in life
3. We are thankful for the things that we have

I also believe that every day life is usually dominated by the first two reactions. They seem so much easier to do than to be thankful. It's easier to just go about life and not think about what's actually in it. To not think about what we spend our time doing, or who we spend our time with. We don't realise what we've got...until it's not there any more.


It's also so easy to dwell on the things that aren't going right in life. The things that your life is missing or that you've lost. We are trained to look for better things, for upgrades and the things that we 'deserve' in life. But what is it that we really deserve? What do we really have a 'right' to have in our life? Isn't it enough to be thankful for the things that we have in our life right now, and not to dwell on the things we don't have?

I'm at a point in my life right now. I'm stick in a spiral of dwelling on what I'm missing in life- what I don't have. The friends I can't be with, the things that are going on without me, the times I spend alone when all I want is to have someone here with me. But it needs to stop. I'm so thankful for the times that I've had people around me, that I've had friends who love me and care for me. I still have that- it's just changed. I need to be thankful.

As I said, it's easy to dwell on the things that you don't have in your life. What about all the things that we do have? Friends and family that love us no matter where in the world we are. A God who loves us and is with us all the time. The joy of being able to tell people about this God who loves us. A beautiful world created for us to enjoy.

Father, please help me to be thankful