Carpentry Lessons from the Master

Today was my last week in the Chennai 1^st Branch. I will miss this little branch, and I will especially miss the Lorax’s Sunday School lessons. His lessons and his mustache are the best. Oh and PS we went to Mamallapuram yesterday and my face got really sunburnt. I didn’t think through the fact that I just finished taking doxycycline (for my sickness) which makes you super sensitive to the sun. I’m really smart sometimes.

Maybe its because of church this morning but I’ve been super reflective as of late. Who am I kidding—my reflective state of mind is probably due to my impending departure. That is looming. Ever. Closer. Whatever the reason, I need to process some of it which means I am going to be dumping here. Stop now if you don’t want to hear it.

One of the biggest things India has taught me is how to better deal with frustration. I don’t feel like I super super sucked at this before, I mean don’t get me wrong I did super super suck at it in some situations, but overall I had more then a few chances to work on that particular skill. But the thing about India is that a lot of things—okay almost EVERYTHING—never goes as planned and when things do go as planned the timing never goes as planned and if the timing goes as planned someone or yourself will say something that either comes out wrong or is taken COMPLETELY wrong by someone else and in short there can just be a lot of frustration. But I am thankful for the frustration because it has stretched me and stretching me has made me more flexible per say.

Another thing India has been working on me with is faith. Overall I feel like I’ve made a lot of progress in this area, but today I was reminded how much I still need to work on in this area via a wooden crocodile. That’s right. A wooden crocodile.

I had bought one in Sri Lanka and I had some ideas of what to do with it. As I have been going through things to leave in India and pack to take home I came across it again and I had a thought that I should give it to Guna. It was a pretty strong thought actually, aka more like an order from above. I had decided I would do it until I went to get it and then I had some second thoughts. In the end, I basically decided that my idea of what to use it for was better then the feeling I had and decision I had made to give it to Guna. Well, because I was being a stinker over a stupid crocodile, I was humbled to find another one the very next day. Which was ironic because I have never seen another one of these wooden crocodile my entire time in this part of the world. So I bought this new crocodile and problem solved right? Now I could keep one and also give one to Guna.

Well the second crocodile I found was nicer then the one I had previously brought and I’m ashamed to say that I had decided to keep the nicer one for myself. But really, that was jacked up because here I was, unwilling to give up something I felt prompted to do and then the man upstairs provided me with another one that was better then the one I refused to give up. Okay, okay, God, point taken—I’ll trust you when you tell me to give something up because I know you will always have something better in store. So I recognized the lesson but sadly, because I was being stubborn, I was still planning to keep the better one for myself. Well to wrap up the story I took Guna’s crocodile over to Veluma for the star store, dropped it off, and everything was finished right? Well yeah, it was finished. But I was sitting in church today when I realized that despite my selfish intentions, I had grabbed the nicer crocodile and dropped it off for Guna. It was almost like I could feel God laughing at me saying “Oh, and you also need to make sure to remember that I am in charge--ALWAYS—and my plan wins every single time”.  So there you go, a lesson in faith all from a stupid wooden crocodile. Oh, and Guna and I have decided to name our crocodiles after one another. I’ll have to keep Guna the crocodile in close sight to remind my independent mind to stay on track with who is really in charge. Thank heavens this reminder lesson came in the form of a wooden crocodile instead of some other form or bigger life event. It is comforting to know that when God laughs at me he also remembers to take into account my humanly shortcomings.

During playtime Guna gave me a note he had one of the older boys write for me. It talks about how when I leave "The Gunaseelan will be so sad he will cry." Me too little buddy, me too. Along with the letter he brought out some pictures, one of him with his parents and one of him at the beginning of the school year. He was SO excited to show me the pics but especially the picture of him with his parents. The kids go home for summer break Sunday morning, which means I will get to meet Guna's parents when they come to pick him up. I am excited for the meeting but kind of afraid its going to tare me apart. Uggghh. I'm not going to think about that anymore until I have too.

And I had to throw in some pics of Guna and Praveen playing on the merry-go-round. They are best friends and LOVE the merry-go-round. I love watching these two interact--and their giggles are so contagious.

And one pic more because I'm leaving and have been taking a lot of "final" pics with the kiddos. :)