there is none like you

If you would allow me to indulge in the usual clichés, I'd say that time's flying past and I have to hold on to something material periodically to reassure myself of the perpetuity of time and the cyclical nature of events that keep my sense of existence in check, while questioning its validity at the same time if these were to recur all the time.

Having just seen a week and a half float away while in Israel and then another one after returning from YF camp, I'm whizzing through time with alarming celerity once again and looking at the piles of unwritten Christmas cards with an abjection, a seasonal grievance I set out for myself. How curious, I know.

YF camp was wonderful. My group was awesome and dynamics were for the most part great. But apart from being just really fun and exciting, I've learnt that I've got to interact on a deeper level to understand people's needs better, and often this entails stepping out of our comfort zones and stooping down to different levels. Sometimes I guess it's so hard and I have a melodramatic mental image of myself leaning on a wall and crying in the rain as I slide down because it's something I hate to do. I do not know why, either.

Anyway someone was telling me how, and I'm paraphrasing here, this year's camp seemed watered-down, in that the messages and group discussions seemed to be rather superficial and only cautiously scratched the surface of potentially complex and debatable issues, and there was a devolution such activities to playing group games, perhaps an indication of avoiding and shirking the need to tackle sensitive topics.

I guess I agree that I wasn't directly learning anything new from the messages since it was about the gospel message in general, but having said that, it did remind me of our stake in the grand scheme of things despite our relative insignificance in it. We were also put in a situation where we could display what we've known all along, like the love of Christ and being salt and light to the world. But it was difficult to remind myself who the camp was for — that it was catered to the newcomers, that sort of thing.

And Andrea's back from Korea! I'm excited too because it's a first-overseas-experience kinda thing.