The glasses I had to start wearing this year because not all eyes are new ones!
I’m barely able to keep from falling down on the floor in an exhausted heap because of jet lag from the fourteen-hour time difference between Tokyo and the Eastern Time zone of the United States. Of course, it doesn’t help that I flew all night last night to get here at 6:15 A.M. from Thailand, where I attended a conference en route to Japan after our three-month home assignment. And then there was the more than two-hour train ride from the airport to actually get home! No wonder I’m utterly fatigued.
In any case, when I do manage to keep my eyes open for even the shortest time, I realize I’m seeing Tokyo with new eyes. How else can you explain:
The air in this huge megalopolis that is home to 10 percent of Japan’s people is known to be highly polluted from people and industry. Yet it seems fresh and wonderful to me today. I’m drinking it in like a dying woman grasping for breath;
The crowded train seemed comfortable. Granted, I had a seat on all three of the trains I had to ride in order to get in from the airport, and that helped greatly. But I’ve always complained about Tokyo’s crowded trains and there wasn’t any lack of people today, either. However, I found myself strangely comforted by the familiar words swirling around me. I felt relaxed and happy in the anonymity of being lost in the crowd without having to answer questions or express my opinions on anything. In fact, I put my head against the side of the train car and slept like a baby—until my head fell over! But I survived both the body-jarring jolt and the embarrassment; and,
I loved my visit to the vegetable stand to restock the refrigerator. The proprietor is a woman who has been, on the better days, a grump. But today I greeted her as if she were an old friend I’d been eager to meet. Amazingly, she smiled and welcomed me back to Tokyo.
Two days later, I pick up this blog once again. My exhaustion has abated somewhat after two very good nights of sleep. (That’s the best part of coming home—sleeping in my own bed again.) In thinking about my feelings as I resume my life in Japan, I realize that everything is the same, but all is different. I am seeing my neighborhood and my life here with new eyes. My prayer is that these new eyes do not dim or become clouded by the inevitable challenges of life I will begin facing all too soon when my normal schedule resumes. And they will come. Difficulties and challenges just go with the territory of being a Christian missionary in Japan. Despite this certainty, I’m determined that my eyesight remains fresh, alive, and alert to all God is doing and wants to do in my midst now that I’ve returned. I want to join him eagerly and expectantly as I continue to see with these new eyes.
In any case, when I do manage to keep my eyes open for even the shortest time, I realize I’m seeing Tokyo with new eyes. How else can you explain:
The air in this huge megalopolis that is home to 10 percent of Japan’s people is known to be highly polluted from people and industry. Yet it seems fresh and wonderful to me today. I’m drinking it in like a dying woman grasping for breath;
The crowded train seemed comfortable. Granted, I had a seat on all three of the trains I had to ride in order to get in from the airport, and that helped greatly. But I’ve always complained about Tokyo’s crowded trains and there wasn’t any lack of people today, either. However, I found myself strangely comforted by the familiar words swirling around me. I felt relaxed and happy in the anonymity of being lost in the crowd without having to answer questions or express my opinions on anything. In fact, I put my head against the side of the train car and slept like a baby—until my head fell over! But I survived both the body-jarring jolt and the embarrassment; and,
I loved my visit to the vegetable stand to restock the refrigerator. The proprietor is a woman who has been, on the better days, a grump. But today I greeted her as if she were an old friend I’d been eager to meet. Amazingly, she smiled and welcomed me back to Tokyo.
Two days later, I pick up this blog once again. My exhaustion has abated somewhat after two very good nights of sleep. (That’s the best part of coming home—sleeping in my own bed again.) In thinking about my feelings as I resume my life in Japan, I realize that everything is the same, but all is different. I am seeing my neighborhood and my life here with new eyes. My prayer is that these new eyes do not dim or become clouded by the inevitable challenges of life I will begin facing all too soon when my normal schedule resumes. And they will come. Difficulties and challenges just go with the territory of being a Christian missionary in Japan. Despite this certainty, I’m determined that my eyesight remains fresh, alive, and alert to all God is doing and wants to do in my midst now that I’ve returned. I want to join him eagerly and expectantly as I continue to see with these new eyes.
