When planning where to go, my input was "I don't care as long as I can do nothing while I'm there." While discussing with some of the other girls who went we also decided we needed sunshine and water. We found a cheap flight (one of the perks of living in Europe is the cheap airlines that travel all over) to Larnaca, Cyprus, rented a car and spent a week in an apartment at the Aphrodite Hills Resort in Paphos.
There are not words to describe how beautiful it was there. It was in the 70s (which after 5 months of near-freezing temperatures felt like heaven) and the sun was out every day (which after 5 months of perma-grey felt like heaven) and the water was soooooooooo blue and clear. I could have stared out at the Mediterranean forever. There were running paths along the hills on the edge of the water that we spent a lot of time exploring. There was a small sandy patch amidst all of the smooth stones where we laid out in the heat of the day. There were some interesting rocks and beaches we explored. We had a traditional Cypriot dinner called Meze, authentic Gyros, and some of the best seafood I've had in a long time. We spent the mornings lazing around, reading, and journaling. Then we would spend the afternoon at the beach or hiking the trails. In the evenings, we traded off making dinner and then we would play games or sit around and talk. (The last day, our after dinner activities also involved hourly aloe applying parties...)
God has been teaching me a lot of things this year. Sometimes the list of things that He's walking me through seems enormous. But recently, He has truly been speaking to me through friends, through sermons, through His Word and through His Spirit to teach me about His grace and love. As I've been processing the way that God sees me - not as a disappointment but as a delight, as someone dearly loved and not someone condemned - other things have come up as well. He's unveiled a lot of anxiety in my life and where I turn to find my value.
He's also been teaching me about the little graces in my life and His sovereignty. On the trip, I was reading through a few chapters of the book One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp which talks about accepting the graces that God gives us with gratitude, even the "hard graces." (It's a really great book...I recommend it - well, at least the first half. I've yet to finish it.) It was easy to see God's graces on this trip - to be thankful for the sound of the waves pulling back over the rocks, the gorgeous sunsets, friends who will slather aloe lotion on the parts of your back that you can't reach, but it also got me thinking about other gifts He's given. I've wanted to travel forever. One of my dreams was to travel to an island in the Mediterranean. And God answered that. In the past year, I've been to Austria twice, Germany, Cyprus, Canada, and Hungary. Before the year is up I will have traveled to Austria again and Greece. God gave me that desire and He has fulfilled it. And this adventure has come with hard graces too; things that I wouldn't have chosen for myself. But as I look back, all of the hard things have been grace. They sent me running to my Savior's arms. Sometimes He calmed the storm around me and other times He taught me to be satisfied with Him and his love in spite of the chaos around me. This has been a year full of gifts. Some were obviously gifts and others took me a while to realize their value, but I am thankful for each of them.
Here are some pictures from Cyprus:
WOW!!!! What a gorgeous place. Glad you got to take a break!
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