So settle in, here's your bedtime story...
I spent the last week away from my usual city life in Kampala and traveled about 8 hours into southern Uganda for field meetings in Kabale. Our week of meetings was spent on Bushara Island, located on Lake Bunyoni.
Bushara Island is a small natural island measuring only 1.8km in circumference. It is a lovely oasis tucked away in the mountainous land of southern Uganda. Its accommodations are a step above camping with some cabins and safari tents, but still no electricity or running water. The island is encompassed by a forrest of eucalyptus trees imported from Australia and populated by scores of different bird varieties. It is lush green quietness surrounded by water, clean air and more green - one of those places that makes your soul sigh and sink back into relaxation.
Having never been to Africa before I moved to Uganda, I really had no idea what to expect when I arrived in Kampala. I think when most people think of Africa without tangible experience of it, phrases like "the bush" and "the jungles of Africa" come to mind. While these certainly may be true of parts of Africa, I moved to a different type of jungle - the city jungle. Kampala is a city of 3 million people living in a space intended for maybe 900 thousand. It is constant movement, noise, dust, people, talking, music, honking, smog, crowds, selling, buying, laughing, crying, carrying, walking, stopping, going.... So being out in the fresh nature expanse of Bushara Island was, quite literally, a breath of fresh air.
I spent just about every spare moment soaking in the outside.
There is a little trail that traces the perimeter of island and I circled it a few times every day. I've been working on my new hobby of photography and so my camera came with me on most of my walks. I found that something amazing happens when you start to look at things from the angle of a camera lens - you start to notice minute details that you otherwise may not have seen.
The first time I walked around the island I was completely caught up and amazed at the beauty and variety of the plants, flowers, birds, trees...Here's the interesting thing - the second and third time around I was just as amazed, but each time I saw new and different details that I hadn't noticed before. It was almost as if I was walking around a new island each day. Even though the walk was relatively short it seemed like the slower I went, the more I really saw and the more I could really take notice of the smaller things that would be lost to the power-walker.
I think God, more times than not, has something to say to me through nature. As I walked, it was as if He was saying,
"Slow down, I don't want you to miss it."
And somehow I don't think that only applies to nature walks. I'm a do-er, a fix-er, a fast-walker, and a hardly-ever-still sort of a person. I wonder what beautiful things I would notice for the first time if I just walked a little slower through life? Took time to treasure people even more by seeing them from this angle, and that angle, and that one? Allowed others to affect me instead of trying to be the influencer? Fully enjoyed the "right now" instead of always mentally preparing and anticipating what's next?
There's more to the story.
The third day on Bushara, I again set out with my camera. I was happily strolling, minding my own business, when an insect (that was apparently in cahoots with al-Qaida) dive-bombed and attacked my eye. Judging by the stinger he left in my eyelid, his attempt at suicide was quite successful. The next few ensuing days left my eye looking like I had taken up professional boxing (and hence, where we started out with the hefty dose of Benadryl).
But I was thinking...that unfortunate and uncomfortable event didn't make the other times I spent on the island less valuable or special. In fact, it became more memorable. It added a new dimension and a new color to my memories.
I'm asking myself if I can apply that to life as well. Not that I enjoy bad or hard times in a a weird masochist way, but that I live them out in a way that realizes they are important to how I view the whole of life, myself, others, God...they are a part of the whole picture.
I don't want to miss it.
View my Bushara Island pictures at:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2084113&id=68603237&l=044b4a9777
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