Driving Day ONE

I was dubbed first driver from Peterborough to Innisfil Ontario, which is about a two hour drive but really, the hardest portion of the drive to Bruce Mines Ontario. It turns out we’ve taken a van and a car – a Lumina which is a girl named Mailun – May for short… or if you’re Sarah – Mail for short.. or lun. So anyway, we ended up having to KAOS before we left and thus left at 10:20am, arriving in Innisfil at 12:30 – lunch time. The ride up was kind of scary. I got to be the first driver and break ‘er in. It wasn’t so bad, I drove on the 401 for the first time which was cool but scary a little, and Rick likes to pass people, haha. So far the only truly annoying thing has been the stupid Transport Trucks, cutting people off and rear ending.. but we did have one nice transport guy who actually let us in to the line to stay behind Rick. We’ve had a couple “buddies” who seemed to be going to the same place and thus kind of stuck with us, haha. I’m thinkin’ our car is pretty cool, we also have Melody in here, true entertainment seems to come with the lovely conglomeration of us. I’m sure the van is having some fun too, but I suppose I’m biased. We’ve been playing music, listening to movies from the front seat while the back seat watches them, we passed a family nudist park sign which made us laugh and Sarah and I had a good laugh when we saw the “Soft Shoulders” sign. This tag-team driving is actually pretty awesome, and our entourage is doing well. We’ve been driving for over 5 hours (though fortunately not straight) which means we’re in the long haul of the last 3.5 hours to Bruce Mines. With Amanda driving, Melody navigating (we’ve kind of paired off so that when Amanda is driving, Mel is navigating. When Sarah is driving I am navigating and when I am driving Sarah is navigating, though we’ve told Amanda that if she ever has the urge to navigate, I’m sure we’d be more than welcoming of a switch, haha. You can tell she’s jumping at the opportunity.) Sarah playing Sudoku and myself writing this – we’re set for the day. OH! We also played the Inukshuk game! There are so many around we decided that when you see one and yell it out you get ten points… then when we saw piles of rocks that used to be Inukshuks we decided to call it quits, there were just too many. So far we’ve only passed one accident, which was interesting but taken care of. Emergency vehicles were there fast, the OPP passed us on its way there and ten minutes down the road, there it was. Anyway, we also have passed a LOT of construction. There have been lots with the men holding the flip slow/stop signs and the last one Adam jumps out of the van (we’re stopped watching from the car behind wondering what on earth he’s doing) and offers the construction guy some Goldfish that Leah brought. It was pretty funny. So, more road stories to come I’m sure. Day one, well in progress!

Who are You?

Who are you? When the fur hits the fan, what will you become? Living perpetually outside of what you know, what you're familiar with, who will you become?

This is one of the things I am most apprehensive about. Those leaving in two days will be spending three months in the zone between comfort and panic; the learning zone. I'm coming later, so I'll have slightly less time in that zone, but that is not the point. The point is this: the further you get outside of your comfort zone, the more layers are pulled back from whatever façade you knowingly or unknowingly present to the world.

It is like languages. You can learn, master, become bilingual, trilingual, multilingual in any number of languages. But no matter what, in times of duress, stress and difficulty you will always revert back to your mother tongue. End of story.

So then, what is going to happen up there? When we are stretched thin, stressed out and ready to break - as will inevitably happen at least once - what will the "mother tongue" of our personality sound like?

Than, I suppose, is part of my fear. That there is some dark, dirty part of my personality that I am subconsciously suppressing which is just waiting to rear its ugly head for all the team to see. That my personality just won't cut it under pressure.

The prognosis is not all bad, however. Even as it is possible that we could, I could, crack outside of our comfort zones, it is just as possible that we have some hidden reserve - of leadership, strength, who knows what? - that is just as eagerly waiting to be let go.

As of yet, God only knows.

But we will find out soon enough.

Michael
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=Annwas Adeniawc=

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As the team slowly filters onto this site, posts about our trip, journals, prayers reqs. etc. will be posted... HERE