Pensive and Pevensie

I am Susan Pevensie standing before the gateway which will lead me back to the land I have come from and the life I live there. My dark hair is tied up in a bun and the free bits about my face dance with the wind, along with the leaves of the bamboo salsa-ing before me.  

Like Susan, I too will be markedly changed by the life I have lived in this world. I am leaving and I am not afraid. Going home is going home. Soon I will be returning to familiar people in familiar places knowing that I will not return to these people in this place, ever. I will never experience life in the same way again, and I will never be the same again. 

Don’t get me wrong, I am acutely aware that I will slot straight back into my old life. Maybe I will grow up and forget all about Narnia. But I don’t think I will forget, not really. I have been changed and transformed and my month in Costa Rica will forever be a part of me. I am a fuller person for being here, for eating beans and rice, for playing football with my bad ankles, and for celebrating the way our God dwells among us through the diversity of all our cultures.

E te whanau, ka kite ano.
Brothers and sisters, see you soon (in the eschatological sense).