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Unsettled Settlement


        We're going through a difficult phase. We seem to have gotten settled in physically but Grace and I seem to be struggling. Grace wants to be outside - a lot. That requires someone be out there with her. She wants to run and play and be a puppy, but she's hampered by leashes and dogs that all seem to be at least 10 years old, or unfriendly, or intimidating. Most troubling, she seems to have decided that she doesn't like our morning walks. Admittedly, walking around and around the blocks isn't exactly exciting, but it's too warm to walk her when we could walk somewhere else.

                The problems for me are a little different. The first order of business after physical settlement has been finding a church. That has been interesting. The first church I planned to try closed its doors in July. The first Sunday, I arbitrarily chose a church that turned out to be a little country church. The second Sunday, I decided to try for something a little less little and a little less country. I plugged the address into my GPS and when I got to my destination, I found nothing that looked remotely like a church. I used my GPS to look up the church, and followed its instructions to a different address that seems to be a day care, not a church. At that point, I used the GPS again to find another church I'd passed a couple times. They are using the exact same Sunday School quarterly as the little country church. They're studying  Genesis.

         The third Sunday, I decided to try the Christian and Missionary Alliance church. I plugged the address into my GPS and when I got to my destination, I saw nothing that looked like a church. I'll admit that it's hard looking around carefully when I'm driving, but I turned around and went back the church from the week before in frustration.

         Last Sunday, I debated briefly with the idea of attending a church that I have actually gone past a couple times.  From what I saw online about them, however, they sounded too aggressively extroverted for my tastes, so I ended up back where I've already been twice. I can't say I'm feeling led to go there, but I'm not sure how else to describe whole buildings that disappear. Sadly, while this church seems to be a good church, it doesn't come close to what I've gotten used to up north. I guess that's called being home-sick.   

        While the park at which we're staying is open, the season has only barely begun this week. I haven't gotten to know people except to say "Morning" to the shadowed faces as we pass in the night on our walks. The social calendar came out last week, and I'm trying to figure out which in which activities I want to be involved - and how involved I want to be. It doesn't really help that the first group I tried to attend (card-making) wasn't there when I got there (the leader has been detained in her summer residence.) I know I need to be involved but right now, the prospect is intimidating: new people, new relationships, new responsibilities...that is, assuming they don't all disappear.

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