This, That, & Gratitude...

Well, it's been two weeks since my last entry. My desire is to post weekly. And, when I don't, I feel that when the second week has rolled by. Not that I think people are thinking, "That Gwen! I can't believe she hasn't posted something yet." But, then again, maybe I do feel the pressure that readers are disappointed when they click on gwenjackson.blogspot and there's nothing new. It's hard for me to believe I began this blog three years ago in September. . . and stayed at it! I get about 500 visits a month, so I guess people are checking!

October 1 is tomorrow! Missing the Michigan fall - apple picking, hot cider, the leaves changing color - but looking forward to our first fall in Budapest.

September has been a month for settling back into our flat and life in Europe. Dennis has been to Russia, Czech Republic, and currently in Macedonia. I joined him for the Czech side of the journey, visiting our teams in Brno and Prague. Great time connecting with team members and being the first to visit the flat of one of our newly appointed young couples in Prague. We stayed with our Czech national pastor, Marek and his wife, Jana, who were wonderfully gracious hosts.

Jamie with Iris and Evee

Our daughter, Jamie, has inspired me to make a gratitude list. If you go over to her blog at Baby Get Green, you'll find her latest post with a list of things she is grateful for during their season at Princeton Seminary. I love her life mission statement to "live a simple and peaceful life," which is not so easy in a world that stays so busy, and with two little ones! She's doing a great job!

Here's my gratitude list at the moment:

• Dennis comes home tomorrow! I'm grateful for the days ahead that we get to be together before he's off again.
• Our sweet language teacher, Lidia (more to come on that)
• The Blank Page Writing Workshop - I am learning so much in this 6-week workshop and feeling more freer in my writing!
• My health - gearing up for a 10K in mid-October
• Julie is coming to visit in 2 weeks!!! A surprise that I discovered earlier than planned :)
• Mike, Joni, and Miles will be here in 3 weeks! Can't wait! 
• The strangers who smiled at me today when I communicated with my new Hungarian words - they were very gracious

Thanks for the reminder Jamie. Gratitude nurtures contentment. I need that from time to time.

The End of Summer Run

Last Saturday night I joined over 3,000 people in a farewell to summer run in the city of Budapest. I loved this 6.5K run because it began at 9:00 at night! That's my time of day!

The night was filled with lots of energy and excitement. I ran with my new friends, Sandor and Olga, and Dennis found a perch on the Chain Bridge where he captured some pictures. What a beautiful run - the floodlit castle in the background, the Danube, the bridges glowing in their night lights as always.

Before the race with Olga and Sandor

And the race begins across the Chain Bridge

Castle in the background as we make our way across the Chain Bridge

Coming down to the finish line. If you look closely I'm to the right in the pink top.

The Blank Page (again)

How often do I sit before a completely naked piece of paper, staring at the bare page as if I have no words to dress it with? Every writer understands the blank page.

That's why I love Christin Taylor's Blank Page Writing Workshop, so much so, that I'm taking it again. After joining her launch workshop last spring, I decided to go another round this fall. The writing prompts, the feedback from others in the group, and the consistency of six straight weeks of writing can only give energy to my desire to write, not to mention, boost my confidence.

You'll find Christin's blog over at the Blank Page as well. Recently she wrote of her family's move to Bellingham, WA, where she reflected on her life as she unpacked her books, carefully organizing them on her bookshelf. Her thoughts made me think of my own move overseas eight months ago when I was in the middle of packing, considering what to do with my personal journals. Christin so graciously posted my thoughts on her blog as Part 2 of "Proof of a Past." That's what I like about Christin. Her passion for writing and her high belief in people create a wonderful blend as creator and facilitator of the Blank Page.

I just finished my first assignment for the Blank Page due next Tuesday, giving more concrete detail to Dennis' and my frantic trip to the train station last week (mentioned in my last post). Life isn't a blank page. It comes alive, dressed in color and full of expression, on the written page.

Green Pastures Eventually

Just a week ago we were considering where we could go for a 3-day get-away. Even though it meant packing a suitcase (again), we decided that rest and relaxation was worthy of the effort. Our friends told us about a place in western Hungary called Hotel Szepalma, which means "beautiful apple." Once a royal estate dating back to medieval times, today it provides a secluded, quiet place for horse-lovers, hikers, and bikers to explore the beauty of the High-Bakony Mountain region. After a busy season in life and ministry, a quiet place sounded like just the thing we needed.

Although the morning we left began at a leisurely pace, getting to the train station was a different story. The light drizzle that began that morning had turned into a steady downpour by early afternoon. Unfortunately, the forecast for the next few days didn't look any better.

Since we had to take public transportation to the train station, packing the umbrellas in my suitcase was not a smart move. I remembered this as Dennis was unlocking the last door on our way out from our flat (we have four doors to unlock, plus a gate before leaving our place). After fishing through several zipper sections of my suitcase, I finally pulled out an umbrella. Just as we rounded the corner of our street to walk to the bus stop, we saw the 212 bus pull away.

The slight umbrella delay cost us a ten-minute wait for the next 212. Bus 212 came along, or so we thought. The heavy rain and steamed up signs on the bus distorted my view of the bus number, and so we boarded thinking it was the 212. Several minutes into the ride, Dennis realized we were going in the wrong direction. At the next stop, we got off what we thought was the 212 to discover it was the 272, caught another bus back to where we started in order to wait for the 212 again. This time we boarded the 212, which would take us to tram 61, which would take us to the train station. By now we wondered if we were going to make our train. It didn't help that the 212 bus sat through two red-lights causing us to be too late to catch the 61 tram in time to make the 2:11 train departure.

Quick thinking resulted in hailing a taxi as soon as we stepped off the 212, with only two minutes to spare. With hand motions and short English phrases we managed to tell the taxi driver that we were within minutes of missing our train. He couldn't go fast enough for us. Approaching the train station, Dennis threw a bill on the front seat to cover the taxi and as soon as the taxi pulled over, we flew out to find our train platform. Although all in Hungarian, helpful station attendants directed us to Platform One where our train sat motionless, but for how long? We showed a crew member our tickets and he quickly directed us to our train car. Wet, sweaty, and hearts pounding, we boarded the train lugging the suitcases along with us. Not hardly fifteen seconds later we could feel the slow, but steady rhythm of the wheels in motion.

Was this the prelude of our get-away?

Thankfully, it didn't prove true. Though we arrived with the wind and the rain still in full force, we were driven by a Szepalma staff member to our get-away spot. I found myself taking in deep soul-filling breaths as we drove further out of the town of Zirc, into the country-side of rolling hills and green pastures, with the Bakony's as a backdrop. Greeted by beautiful flower gardens and a warm receptionist I knew the frantic trip to the train station was not an indication of things to come. 

The next morning we realized we were the only ones in the entire hotel! We had the place to ourselves for the next couple days. We read, we hiked (and asked ourselves several times how we ever hiked without trekking poles before - thanks again kids!), read some more, and even got a carriage ride. Two meals a day included with our lodging were gourmet amazing. We definitely picked the right week (the start of school) and the perfect place to enjoy time together away from the hustle and bustle of life.

Hopefully these photos will capture some of what we enjoyed at Szepalma.

Second day - though not clear and sunny, the rain stopped so we could hike. This is at the highest point of the Bakony's