It's my first week in the B1 level of Spanish class. The levels start at A1 (beginner) and progress to C2 (expert): A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2. As you know from previous posts and newsletters, becoming proficient at a language is sometimes difficult and frustrating. There are days where it seems as though you've forgotten everything you ever learned and it'll never happen (today), there are days where you look back in astonishment at how far you've come, but most days you just try to keep plodding forward "poco a poco".
I recently signed up to take Hapkido class twice a week. Call me crazy (and I wouldn't disagree with you) but I did it to capitalize on a few opportunities: structured exercise time, to practice Spanish, and to meet a few more Spaniards ("poco a poco"). Two and a half weeks in: I'm bruised, my body is constantly sore, and I continue to be pretty slow and clumsy with the Hapkido moves I have managed to learn. Not unexpected given that I've never done this before. My instructor keeps telling me, "poco a poco."
Also, I'm currently reading a book that a neat friend recently sent me, "A Million Miles in a Thousand Years" by Donald Miller. I don't have the brain power to sum it up well for you today, but here's a snippet from the book cover:
Every life is a story. Whether it is a story worth telling and talking about, though, is up to you. People set out with grand dreams of changing the world, falling in love, doing something amazing. But the drift toward the merely acceptable happens almost without notice. That does not have to be your story."
This book is full of good stuff, so you probably should go buy it. Or come visit and I'll let you borrow it :). But, a pretty consistent theme throughout the book so far is that good great stories require lots of hard work that will probably usually be painful. Maybe even excruciating. But God has placed us in this epic tale and if we choose to trust Him and risk everything to be part of it ("poco a poco"), we'll get to see and experience some amazing stuff.
The day I remember most while crossing the country [the U.S.A, on a bicycle] was the day we rode through Joshua Tree. I got away from the group by perhaps thirty miles, and as the temperature broke a hundred degrees, I was forced to look for shade... I just needed a break from the sun. I knew I had fifty more miles to go, and the miles would be, perhaps, the most miserable of my life. But in that place, I remembered about story, about how every conflict, no matter how hard, comes back to bless the protagonist if he will face his fate with courage. There is no conflict man can endure that will not produce a blessing. And I smiled. I'm not saying I was happy, but for some reason I smiled. It hurts now, but I'll love this memory, I thought to myself. And I do.
- Donald Miller, "A Million Miles in a Thousand Years"
