The Busy Bee Has The Sweetest Life

Around a month ago I wrote a blog post about some of my struggles with life here in Oakland. I was having a hard time feeling validated and fulfilled in my work. I wasn't very busy and I felt alone and detached from my old life and my new life as well. I was loving life in Oakland, but as is the case when you move somewhere new, get a new job, or start a new adventure, sometimes you can feel alone in your experience even when you are surrounded by many people. You can read my blog post here, but I have great news for you all- no longer do I feel unfulfilled. On the contrary I am so satisfied with my life here in Oakland that I honestly am sometimes hit with a wave of gratitude while doing simple things such as sitting by the lake and reading a book, or walking down the hallways at La Escualita, the school I am volunteering in. 

I am on Spring Break this week so I have been able to take life slower, binge watch more netflix, spend time cleaning and organizing my room, and catching up on sharing my thoughts here on this blog. 

I want to share some ways I have felt blessed and cared for by God and others while adjusting to life here in Oakland. 

1. My homegroup: these people truly feel like family to me and I love and look forward to sharing a meal and life with them every Thursday. We have been reading through Multiply by Francis Chan together and it's been wonderful for me to think about practical ways I can better live out my faith and grow closer to God through the reading of His word and through prayer, both solo prayer and prayer in groups. We also have fun, such as the night we watched the Lego movie. Everything is awesome. 

2. Coral donating a bike: a few weeks ago I was over at some friends house for a game night and I mentioned I was in need of a bike, Coral had one and instantly offered it to me. It had a few minor issues, but nothing a couple bucks and some TLC couldn't fix. I haven't even ridden it more than twice, but Coral's generosity struck me. 

My beautiful bike which I have named Rizzo 

3. The people of Regen: This is very broad, but I have been blessed and loved on by a broad amount of people at Regen. People bringing meals by, people taking me out to eat, to the movies, to coffee, to the Exploratorium, having me over for dinner, having me over for breakfast, walking around the lake with me, going to flea markets with me, or for game nights.This community literally gives me life! Even the kids at Regen have been such a huge blessing to me. Look at their precious faces while I am reading them a book: 

4. When the students attack me with hugs: THIS IS MY FAVORITE THING. I know that there are rules and stuff regarding too much physical affection with students in school, but oh man when these students see Sascha and I walking down the hallway and their first response is to hug attack me I can't not accept it! I am working in La Escualita 5 days a week now so hug attacks happen daily. Generally they come from the younger kids, Pre-K through 2nd, but occasionally I will get a stray hug attack from an older student, those seem to mean more to me for some reason. I hope the students feel so much love from me and that they will continue to get to know me and want to know more about why I volunteer daily at their school. That's when I'll get the chance to tell them that I love them because Jesus first loved us! 

Part of Joey's CA adventure,  before we walked across it!

Life has been so joyous recently. I even had the chance to show my brother all around the Bay this past weekend. It was so wonderful to have a familiar face here and the chance to share with him some of my favorite things about life in Oakland and beyond.  I have been very busy with life, church, working in school, and my ever growing social life, but it's like they say: the busy bee gets the honey. Life probably won't slow down much anytime soon, but that's okay with me. 

Bring it on, I like life busy and sweet. 

Getting Farley's with Lisa a few weeks back

A perfect sunset walk around Lake Merritt

"Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; our God is merciful."

Psalm 116:5

“Gratitude is the sweetest thing in a seeker's life- in all human life. If there is gratitude in your heart, then there will be tremendous sweetness in your eyes.”
― Sri Chinmoy

Love you all, 

Jen