Magical Lynn Valley
What felt like a very long year end holiday has come to a close. My husband and I spent two weeks in Canada, US and Taiwan with families and friends to celebrate the end of 2016 and the beginning of 2017. Behavioural economists have claimed that the perception of time can measured by memories. In spite of the brief actual duration, the two of us had a grand adventure filled with discoveries.
If there was an underlying theme to summarise our trip, we learned that prayers superceed our imagination, yield joy beyond preparations and planning by infinite fold. Moreover, we found a few of our prayers were answered –
01. We prayed for journey mercy
Big white, Kelowna
Like others with limited annual leave, I have the penchant to plan for multiple legs in a single journey. So we know to pray for not only safety but also for the smooth transits.
Whilst our journey was smooth overall, three incidents took place. The first one was a 4 hour delay from Singapore to Taiwan in the beginning of our trip. That particular flight was the first out of three we had to take to reach Kelowna, our first destination. You can imagine the risk of delay on the first flight could mean missing subsequent two flights that follow. It could have resulted in us missing Christmas altogether given that all other flights to our destinations were full for the holiday. But God is good because in spite of the delay, we caught our flights and arrived safely in Kelowna 10 minutes early.
Then we were caught in a car accident. Vancouver had a heavy snow storm on New Year’s Eve and our rental 2WD was not cut to travel through deep snow at Burnaby. So our friend had to drive us in their AWD so that we could all attend the NYE party. While skating the highway, a dodge reversed out of a sudden to change lane (I know!!) and hit the bumper. Given the icy road, we were fortunate to be safe and scratchless. The same cannot be said for the car!
Finally, our last leg home was grounded at Ho Chi Minh City for emergency landing. There was smoke on plane, so for our own safety the pilot decided to take refuge in Vietnam.. for 8 hours! Boy am I glad to be home… unscratched!
02. We prayed for the time spent with families
Dinner Feasts!
I found out how big truly is my extended family during this trip. In Kelowna we met relatives who migrated from Prussia before the first world war, which stretches our family to a new horizon! We were showered with kindness and hospitality all the time we stayed in Kelowna, Vancouver, Seattle and even in Taipei. Throughout the trip, we only had one quiet day spent alone, just the two of us. That has to be a kind of a luxury, having families and friends wherever we go.
03. We prayed for our marriage
My husband… with Bounty the Retriever
One of our biggest fears is not having a role model for marriage, which means we have a lot to work on! Solving issues peacefully (instead of running away, for me) is a challenge. But we met so many other older married couples. Our distant ‘aunties’ taught us that being married meant that we agree to work with that person for the rest of our lives. When we say ‘I do’, it also means ‘I’m gonna work on you’. Doesn’t mean that we will change the other party, but more often than not when we are in a committed union, we change. As result, our partner also changes. This was profound! Thank you Auntie Christie
