All posts by melindacousins

The hospitality of the nativity, or Yesterday was a lovely day to spend Christmas in Monaco

December 26, 2016Faith, Monday Travel PostsChristmas, Hospitality, Incarnation, Monaco, Monte Carlo, Nativity, Travelmelindacousins

My Monday travel posts posts usually reflect back on places I have been over the years. But today I’m reflecting on the place I spent yesterday, Christmas Day 2016: the tiny principality of Monaco.

Monaco is known as a playground for the rich and famous and there were certainly glimpses of that. But with all the shops closed and the rich hotel buffet lunches behind closed doors, it was perhaps a different side of the city-state that I loved and learned from.

What did I love about Monaco?

Built on the steep slopes of the Maritime Alps overlooking the Mediterranean, the city’s architecture reflects its topography.

The ports are filled with luxury yachts, at this time of year many moored for the winter.

The winding streets are familiar from watching F1 Grands-Prix.

Looking down from above is the old palace,

as well as the beautiful old Cathedral.

At this time of year, along the quai there are Christmas markets with food, handmade gifts and entertainment.

All throughout the city there are beautiful Christmas decorations and lights.

What did I learn from Monaco?

The highlight of my day was the time I shared with some of the wonderful people I met after visiting St Paul’s Anglican Church. Not only did we share a significant time celebrating Christ’s birth with carols and death and resurrection through the Eucharist, but they invited me to share an amazing Christmas lunch afterwards! Their hospitality and welcome to this visiting stranger was a beautiful reflection of the message of this day.

I was also reminded of God’s hospitality in the incarnation through the variety of crèches (nativity scenes) throughout the city.

In parks, on street corners, in churches and on display outside the palace, the variety was stunning.

What really struck me was how so many different people portray the scene of Jesus’ birth in a way that reflects their own life experience.

From 19th century Provençal sets

to Madagascan displays

and everything in between, it was a delight to discover the huge range!

And they also reminded me of the key truth of the incarnation that we celebrate on this day: God coming to us as one of us.

Emmanuel, God with us. It makes sense that we depict his coming in ways that look familiar to us, because God does come to us in the familiar, ordinariness of everyday life. He enters our world, speaks our language, lives our humanity.

This is the ultimate act of hospitality. The God who incarnates himself as one of us so that we might know his loving embrace.

As I was reminded of it in the crèche scenes and experienced it through God’s people at St Paul’s, may you know and experience the hospitality of the incarnation this Christmas season.

Today would be a good day to be in Tokyo

November 7, 2016Monday Travel PostsCulture, food, Japan, okonomiyaki, specialisation, Tokyo, Travelmelindacousins

Tokyo was the first city I visited on my first big overseas trip. I only had a few days there, and at that stage I hadn’t really figured out what kind of traveller I was, what I really loved to do. I stayed with some friends who were living there and had a fantastic time, including celebrating New Year’s Eve. But I think it would be great to go back there now, over a decade later, when I have much more travel experience under my belt and I know why I love travelling so much, and see more of what this amazing city has to teach me.

What did I love about Tokyo?

Probably the initial reason I have been thinking about Tokyo this week is because I have discovered a great little Japanese restaurant right near my house that does really yummy okonomiyaki. It was definitely my favourite food discovery of my time in Japan!

I also loved the street food like takoyaki and yakitori, as well as the opportunities eating it brought about to meet people wandering by who just wanted to say hi and practice speaking English with a gaijin.

I was also pretty excited about discovering a vending machine with hot chocolate in a can!

I loved getting a small glimpse of the different way people do things in different places, such as the impact of house sizes on our relationship with domestic animals. In Australia many people have pets, and some even pay someone else to walk their dog for them. In Tokyo, I loved seeing the guy with lots of dogs you could pay to take for a walk, and visiting the cat ‘museum’ where you can have an hour or so to play with some feline friends.

I loved seeing glimpses of experimental technology that was yet to make it to my homeland, from robot dogs to mobile DJ vans and everything in between.

And Tokyo was also the first place outside Australia I saw snow, and experienced it as just an everyday occurrence, so that is a pretty special memory!

What did I learn from Tokyo?

Something I noticed in Tokyo was the number of places that appeared to replicate things familiar from other parts of the world.

This could be seen as paying homage, but I couldn’t help wonder if at times it betrays a seemingly common kind of fear that one’s own cultural distinctives are not quite ‘enough’?

What I’ve learned in my travels since Tokyo is that what I really love and what I really learn from is getting a sense of what makes a particular place and its people unique, what makes them tick, what they have to teach the rest of us. I don’t want to see the same tourist attractions you can see anywhere, I want to know what makes each place and its people who they have uniquely been created to be.

I missed out on on having time to explore Tokyo’s rich history and culture in a way that I could learn from and be challenged by more deeply, which is of course why I’d love to go back!

But one random thing that really struck me when visiting Tokyo was the degree of specialisation seen particularly in the way different types of shops were grouped together, and different shops sold only specific products.

We found everything from a brush/broom shop …

… to a frog shop!

I was impressed by the specificity, and for me it says that it is ok to choose to just do one thing as long as you do it to your utmost. I think we can all use the reminder to be who we are and do what we do sometimes.

Japan, I look forward to coming back now that I know what it is about travelling that I really love and learn from and receiving more of what you have to offer.

In the meantime, you do you, Tokyo.

What do you do when you realise you’re not living out what you say you value?

October 31, 2016Blogging, QuestionsBusyness, communication, email, expectations, promptness, relationships, Self-awareness, values, Wounds from a friendmelindacousins

My friend Sarah wrote a great post last week called “When the exceptions to your routines become the rule” and I’ve been thinking about it ever since. It’s well worth a read!

Her key point is that our lives can change and without realising it we find there is a disconnect between our ideas about the way we routinely live and the reality. And it has challenged me to consider where this might be true in my own life.

For example, I think of myself as a person who is always on time to things. But my life is currently a whole lot busier than it has been in previous years, and that perspective I have of myself is no longer entirely true. My Book Club friends could attest to this as for some reason they bear the brunt of it – I’m nearly always late (although come to think of so are many of them – perhaps we should change our meeting time!)

More significantly, I like to think of myself as a person who responds to communication from others promptly. I value good communication highly and try to work towards “inbox zero”. But between juggling four email addresses, text messages, and Facebook messages, I have to admit that things fall through the cracks sometimes. The reality is that I am not always as on top of my communications as I would like to think I am. And this means that other people probably don’t see me the same way I see myself.

Apparently my brother-in-law believes emails should responded to within the day. If that is the expectation then I fail it regularly, particularly when it’s a reply that will take more than a minute or two. And when I mentioned this whole issue to one of my closest friends this week, she said, “Yes, you take ages to respond to text messages.” Ouch! But thanks for the reality check.

So what do we do when we recognise that we are not meeting our own expectations? Do we adjust our expectations or our reality?

Do I need to admit to myself that although I would like to be a person who is on time and replies to others in a timely manner, I’m just not? Or do I need to ask myself whether (and why) I still value promptness and then think about how I can re-establish it in my daily practices?

Sarah’s advice is this:

“A deliberate life that honours what matters to us most means constant recalibration of our routines.”

When I slow down and think about it, I have to say that I do value promptness. Not for its own sake, but because I value the people to whom I show it. I value their time, their commitment, their engagement with me. And it’s when I lose sight of that and focus more on myself (how busy I am or how stressed I am) that I overlook the message I am sending to them by my behaviour.

So perhaps this post functions as a confession. I do not live up to my own desire to be a person who demonstrates how much I value others in the way I respond to them.

It also functions as an apology. Friends, I’m sorry if I have dishonoured you or undervalued your time by not responding to you as you needed me to. Please forgive me.

It also functions as an attempt to make myself more accountable. I recognise that I need friends who are willing to call me out and remind me when I’m not living out what I say I value.

And maybe this post can also function as a reminder to some of you, that busyness can be one of the biggest hindrances to good relationships and true community. And that it’s worth letting someone challenge you to rethink your own practices and habits so that you might be honest with yourself and make sure that you haven’t overlooked what you truly value due to a false sense of your own experience.

Thinking Out Loud …

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