What I'll Miss...

It's always a tricky thing to come up with one resolves to do for a full year, and let's be honest I don't think I have ever been successful with any of my resolutions. But each year, like most of you, I still have a burning need to resolve to do something to improve myself. Most of the time it is to eat less sugar. (I still have that one for 2010, but won't really take it too seriously until I no longer work in a bakery.)

The past months I noticed that I have a tendency to complain about things...mostly my job and where I live...or rather how my job inhibits my ability to enjoy where I live. It seems like we have been talking a lot about gratitude at church, and I realized that I could do with a more thankful attitude. So, here is one of my resolutions: once a week I have to write about something I am grateful for. Since I will also be leaving Dubai shortly, I am turning it into "What I Will Miss" so I can continue to share things about Dubai, and more particularly, the things that have lifted my spirits while I've been here.

So here it is. Installment numero uno:

I will miss the people at church. In later posts I will probably highlight specific people, but today I want to show my gratitude for the opportunity to mingle with such an international crowd. With both Dubai congregations combined, we really do represent the four corners of the earth. After a brief survey of the crowd for our Christmas activity, I noted that we had representation from every continent, excepting Antarctica of course. It is really something to behold.

Alongside the sheer joy of being with such an eclectic crowd (seriously, where else am I going to be able to meet people from Sri Lanka, Greece, and Columbia all in the same evening without attending an Olympic sporting event?), I think the real beauty is getting to see the world through their eyes. I think being surrounded by people with the same types of education, religious thoughts, hobbies, interests, and culture we forget that there may actually be people out there who are indeed different. That comment sounds a little blaise, (is that the word I want), but I am looking for words to express what I mean. I think we all know that we can learn from the differences in other people, maybe I am grateful for those small things that I do end up learning from people of different cultures.

In my branch we have sweet lady from Swaziland. Today she was teaching about love, service and charity and she shared experiences from her homeland. She talked about a friend that has adopted 17 children who have lost both of their parents to the AIDS epidemic that is sweeping that part of Africa. I am not really sure why it is that her stories touched my heart so deeply, but I was inspired to do better and to seek out opportunities to give more service. Maybe I can't provide gifts to thousands of orphans at Christmastime, but there is someone out there that I can provide a service to.

So that's what I'll miss: being surrounded by people of other cultures who inspire me to do better.