Lawlessness or lovelessness?

If sin is lawlessness, and Jesus focuses the commandments into the greatest two being Love God, and love your neighbor, then the law is to love, thus lawlessness is lovelessness. So, if we act in love, we are acting lawfully, and if we act in sin, we are acting not in love, but in selfishness. We aren't supposed to manage sin, we aren't supposed to focus on do's and don't's, instead, we are to be motivated by love. I don't know anyone who doesn't like to be loved.

psalm

“Lord, make me to know my end, And what is the measure of my days, That I may know how frail I am. Indeed, You have made my days as handbreadths, And my age is as nothing before You; Certainly every man at his best state is but vapor. Surely every man walks about like a shadow; Surely they busy themselves in vain; He heaps up riches, And does not know who will gather them. “And now, Lord, what do I wait for? My hope is in You. Psalm 39 4-7 NKJV

A Thought on Life and Money

I feel like having too much money would distract from a life of adventure. The lack of financial resources seems to enhance creativity. Learning how to be resourceful out of necessity is not only a way of freedom from financial obligation, but it makes life interesting. After all, necessity is the mother of invention.

One year in Belize

As of today (Oct. 10), I have officially been living in Belize for one year, and seeing as how I haven't blogged in a very long time, this seems like a good reason to write. It's very strange thinking about my life before Belize, it's so different and seems like so long ago. I have no concept of time while I'm here. When it comes to days and weeks and months, I just exist somewhere in the middle of all of it. This is mainly due to the fact that I don't have daily commitments, I just leave each day open to whatever comes along. I would say I prefer it that way. Anyway, here's what's going on in the life of Perry Wigglesmith these days. I think I become a little more Belizean every day. This week I learned how to make rice and beans and fried plantain. I don't know why I didn't try it sooner! As far as food is concerned, I do what I can to make my money stretch as far as possible. I'll just say I eat a lot of oatmeal. I like to cook and try new things, but that kind of thing takes time, and I'm far from proficient in that field. My roommate says I have the blood of a chef, but not the practice! This is because whenever I try to make something new, I usually butcher it the first few tries. I made some cookies last week..sort of... I'll just say my oven doesn't specify temperature, it just hast the little increasing slope as if to say, " It's somewhere between here and here, Good luck!" It's always fun though. I'm sharing a one bedroom apartment with a guy from Mexico named Jhonattan, but I just call him by his English name, Jonathan, it's much easier. I let him have the bedroom and I just camp on the couch in the main room. We have a trade off where I help him out with English and he helps me with Spanish. Although, he's doing much better at it than I am. He's a very cool guy. He helps clean the house and pays when he's supposed to, what more could you ask for! I have a lot of free time here, but I never get bored for long. I've recently been getting into knitting. Of all things right? I learned how to crochet earlier this year and decided to learn how to knit as well. I have a book called the encyclopedia of knitting... I tell everyone I'm an old lady at heart. I'm currently working on a scarf for winter seeing as how I will be in Texas for Alyssa and Matt's wedding in December. I want to make things that are useful, because in the tropics, knitted clothing isn't always the most practical thing to wear. On the agenda is a blanket to put on the couch, mainly for decoration. Some stuff I crocheted are a wash cloth and house slippers (as seen below), and lots and lots of hats. The dreads are coming along nicely. It's been a little over 5 months since Amber locked my hair. I've heard it takes one year for them to get mature and become almost maintenance free. I'm figuring out the best ways to keep them clean and pretty. They seem to be growing pretty fast too. I think the salt water helps tremendously. I'm still playing drums with Barrington and the Islanders, and still loving it. I think we are playing for a wedding this Saturday at Coco Beach, as well as the usual Sunday and Tuesday nights at Captain Morgan's Retreat. I'm still dumbfounded at how blessed I am to have that gig. And I've made connections with just about every musician on the island. There's a great community of musicians here, and plenty of live music every night of the week. I'm always biking around town, staying healthy whilst transporting! It's a win win mode of transportation. Although, we are indeed in the rainy season, which means there's no way to avoid getting wet. Perhaps my greatest idea yet is rain shorts. I cut some rain pants to where they just fit over my shorts and they keep me perfectly dry. It's amazing because my pants are always wet when I ride my bike and they never cease to get mud flung all over them, but with the rain shorts, problem solved. Plus, I never wear shoes, so it doesn't matter if my feet get wet. That's about it for the one year update, but my New (Belize)Year's resolution is to blog more. Stay tuned to see how that goes!

Trip to the states

This past month has been a little crazy and full of changes, but refreshing none the less. At the end of last month, my initial 6 months in Belize came to an end and I went back to Texas for the first time. My roommate, Camden, (or "John" for all of the San Pedrano's who couldn't remember "Camden") and I packed up our things and went back to Dallas by way of Cayo. We made it into a three day journey while we explored some of Belize's beautiful mainland before our flight to the states. By the time we reached Dallas, it was late at night and 40˚ due to a recent cold front. Needless to say, I was freezing! And on top of that, I had begun to experience culture shock in my own home town! I was in the place where I had grown up and it was so familiar to me, but it seemed somehow different. It was as though I was in a place that I had visited before in a dream, had I been gone for hours or days or years? 6 months is a very strange amount of time to be away from the entire country and culture that you are familiar with. Anyway, it took about a week before I warmed up (litterally!) to the idea of cars and having to wear shoes everywhere. So much land and distance between places. It just took some adjusting. The time there, however, was wonderful. I was blessed to be surrounded by friends and family almost all day every day. I tried to spend time with as many people as I could, but I was only there for 13 days, and that's just not enough time to really spend quality time with very many people. I think I did pretty good though considering the majority of my time was spent having my friend, Amber, put my hair into dread locks. That took about 2 hours every day for the full two weeks! And I am incredibly thankful to have a friend working on it who knew what she was doing! As the two weeks came to a close, we had a going away party for me, because Camden was back to stay. I was the lone ranger going back to San Pedro. I got on a 6 am plane and made it to the island before noon. Once again, believe it or not, I experienced culture shock. Even though I had spent 6 continuous months there and only 2 short weeks away, I had to get used to it all over again. Everything seemed so old and run down, but the sea looked so beautiful and refreshing. Everywhere, dirt roads that turn into lagoons when it rains and if something's not rusty or broken then it's not Belizean yet! It was another time of adjustment, although, I think the biggest adjustment was living alone. I moved into the one bedroom apartment across the hall from where I stayed last time. It was so strange to me as I unpacked Cam and Herby's things they had left behind, that they wouldn't be there anymore. It felt so similar to that first time I moved to Belize and my memory kept telling me the other two should still be there. It was a little lonely at first, but I soon got used to it. I jumped right back into my routine, playing music with Barrington and the Islanders and chilling at Melody's art gallery, making hemp bracelets and crocheting beanies in hopes of selling them. The island life is a simple one and I prefer it that way, but I really enjoy visiting home.

what would you say?

I have lived in Belize for 6 months now and it feels like I've spent years here; time definitely moves at its on pace when you're on an island. I'm preparing to go home to Texas for a visit this week and I'm not sure what to expect. I know it will be a culture shock, but I look forward to seeing people, as well as how much I've changed in comparison to my old life. I don't necessarily look forward to explaining my story to every person who asks, but I have to deal with that here as well. There's nothing more annoying than the person who asks a question like how I ended up in Belize or something that requires some explaining, yet they start to glaze over when I answer the question. I do, however, actually love telling the story to people who genuinely want to hear about it. I guess I just have to read the person and give them as much as they can pay attention to. Good listeners are few and far between it seems like, but that just makes them more refreshing to be around. (Btw, I consider anyone who reads the blog to be a good listener:) It's actually pretty funny how much I've shortened my response to people who ask about my story. I think I've actually gotten it down to one or two sentences. I say, "I got an opportunity to come here and jumped on it, without ever having been here before, I sold my stuff, quit my job, stopped going to college and moved here without looking back." People tend to respect that answer the most. lol

what are we waiting for?

Since I've been out of America, I've had some room to breathe and discover some things about life and culture. I have come to a realization that up until I moved here, everything in my life has been a preparation of some sort for the future. Whether it was school or working or practicing this or that, I spent all of my time and effort preparing for an unknown future. Preparation is great and necessary to a certain extent, don't get me wrong, but I don't believe it is meant to consume our lives the way it does. In America, it tends to define us. In Belize, however, or at least on the island, we let tomorrow worry about itself. We like to stop and enjoy the life we've been given. If people were less concerned about the latest and greatest crap that they have to work so hard for, and just learn to be satisfied with very little, they wouldn't have to let so much of their precious time slip right through their fingers while they punch the clock day after day. Take my advice and relax and enjoy the day, I don't know, maybe sell some stuff and work less hours, it does wonders for your health.