See these?

These are figs freshly picked from our tree.

In Matthew 21:18-22 it tells the story about how Jesus came across a fig tree and wanted to eat of the fruit. Walking up to it and seeing that it bore no figs, Jesus cursed it. The disciples were amazed at how the fig tree withered and died, so they asked Jesus how he did it. Jesus tells them that if they have faith and do not doubt they will too receive whatever they ask for in prayer.

I’ve never eaten a fig before. This morning Bisa picked from figs from the tree in the back garden and offered me some. They are actually really tasty despite looking like weird onions. What is pretty cool though I though was how Jesus liked to eat figs too and He has walked up to a tree like the one in our back garden and cursed it because it had no figs. It kinda made the parable in the story a little bit more real for me because I could imagine Jesus walking around eating a fig like the one I was holding in my hand. Maybe He really liked to eat them and thats why he ended up cursing the tree when he saw there was none on its branches. I don’t blame Him, they taste pretty good.

So tonight Natalie and I went for a walk along the beach. Just chatting and walking, it was really nice, I’m loving these long summer nights. The sun doesn’t set till 9pm and the days feel so long, like you can do so much and stay up so much later. Actually daylight savings is quite deceiving! Its seems like a constant struggle for me to try and get to bed before 12am!

What I am really loving right now is relationships. I love all the relationships I have, the dynamics, the differences, the stories and random bursts of laughter. Oh gosh, how I love the laughter! Theres no other better feeling than the connectedness you feel when you can laugh with someone. And I don’t mean like, “yeah haha, thats funny.” I mean gut wrenching uncontrollable laughter, where I am laughing so hard my tummy hurts. I love Esther, she makes me laugh. We’ve had some random funny moments in the car which were kinda borderline dangerous… hehe.

I guess what I am appreciating right now too is the diversity in relationships. I love how God has created us all so different. Different ways of thinking, talking, habits and doing things. I love spending time with someone and hanging out getting to know them one on one.

Who are you?

What makes you tick?

Why do you think that?

I’m fascinated to know how God has fashioned and created them. I guess thats why I like people. Each person is like some untold story, uncharted territory with amazing testimony. I was having lunch with a girlfriend on Sunday after church, just chatting and what not. We were talking about family and what family actually means and she told me a bit about her family and how her family pretty much came to Australia as refugees and with no skills or trade worked (very hard) to build a new life for their family in this country. They had a little boy and a baby (my friends big brothers) at the time. Imagine that. To have to build your life from scratch with not even two cents to rub together and just the clothing on your back. I thought it was a pretty amazing family history and you wouldn’t even guess that looking at this woman. Shes beautiful, educated and articulate.

I guess I sometimes get the same response from people when they find out about my history. Where I am from, why I am in Perth, why I haven’t seen my family in years… even telling someone I am chinese its like “no way!! I thought you were maori or something!” Haha. I guess when we look at the exterior of a person what you see is who they are now. I know if you had met me 5-6 years ago you would of met a totally different Anna, and proberly alot less nice one if it wasn’t for the saving power of Jesus who has brought me through the refining process as I am continuing to walk out my faith journey.

Anyways, I was talking to my friend Dave last night on the phone. I was telling him how I felt I needed to downsize everything. Like as I was unpacking the boxes in my room when I got back from Hong Kong I realised how much stuff I really had. Plus all the stuff I brought back from Hong Kong, it was starting to feel really quite ridiculous. 25 pairs of shoes? 6 watches? Over 50 pieces of jewelry? Not to mention clothes! When would I realistically have time to wear all this stuff…?

When I was packing up my house in Karrinyup I found I had about 10 (cockroach infested – gross, I know.) boxes of stuff that I had accumulated over the past 7 years I’ve lived in Perth. Letters, uni note books and assignments, random bits of paper, stuffed toys, journals and photos. Ruth really encouraged me to throw out alot of the stuff I didn’t need, its just not practical for someone in my situation to have so much stuff to move from house to house. I feel a bit like a gypsy sometimes, setting up camp in house to house, but its true; I really can’t have that much stuff. So the morning of the move I went through the boxes and pretty much if it was something I didn’t really NEED now, I chucked. It was hard to do, so many memories, the story of my life but I had to realise that they were also a symbol of my past, they represented a point in time. Where I got it, how I got it or who gave it to me… and I had to let some of those things go.

My stuffed toy Mr Rabbit had to go, I brought him when I was 14 for guy I liked but never ended up giving it to him. I remember the details around buying that stuffed toy, even going into Marks and Spencers to get it. Thats huge for a 14 year old, I never had brought anything for someone I thought I cared about so that was a first time. So Mr Rabbit made the trip to the bin. Throwing away all those things though hard, was strangely releasing. It was like I was saying to God that I was releasing all those things and memories in my past that were a part of me or a part of who I thought I was, saying I wanted the future He has for me more. It was also saying that I trust Him that He would create new and better memories for me.

Only thing I ended up keeping from those boxes were my photos and my journals. I narrowed those 10 boxes into 1 small box of memories.

Anyways so Dave was telling me about his older brother Micheal who lives in the states and how he lives a really simple life. About how he lives without a television because he feels its mind numbing and isn’t adding much to his life. Pretty much his life is basically God, his church, his friends and his guitar. He just keeps his life simple to the core things he values. As he was telling me this I could imagine his brother (I know what he looks like because I used to also go to school with the guy) sitting on a porch somewhere guitar in hand surrounded by all his friends singing worship songs. And that would be his chazone, his sweet spot. All the things he loves in one place.

It got me thinking.

To live life alot simpler sounds like a nice idea. To be living in my core values without all these peripheral things sounded appealing and refreshing. So I thought about it and basically narrowed it down to 2 things: God and people. The next day I went through my wardrobe again and took out more clothes and half of my collection of shoes (now I am down to 14 pairs – its a hard decision ok!). I also took out my queen size duvet and sheets and I planned to give away my queen size bed. I didn’t really need to sleep in a bed that big, I would only take up about a quarter of it anyways. So it all got donated to the Good Sammys.

I just want to live a whole lot simpler.

Schools back next week so I’ve been getting back into the planning. My year 11′s and 12′s are studying music videos and documentary film – should be a really fun year