Feast and Fasting....

Here I am in Vienna, a feast for the art lover, the chocolate lover, the wine lover, the history lover, the architect lover, the opera lover, the meat lover, the symphony lover...the list goes on, there are so many things to love and feast on in Europe. I personally have feasted on more than my share of cappuccinos, these cream torte thingys and most of those listed above. The richness and depth that exists here is astounding.

So in comes lent....you know where you sometimes deprive yourself of something delicious for a period of time? Then you gorge on it at the end because you missed it so much. Unless you are my husband then you make little rules along the way like, "you can have the thing you gave up every Sunday during lent" or "oreos are NOT Chocolate", you know the drill. I always change the rules when I "deprive" myself. Little did I know that coming to Vienna, while being a feast for the eyes is a fast of my good friendships. Fasts are supposed to be a learning opportunity right? So what have a learned? A few things I have learned...

1. I NEED friends. I need them in my life. I need people who KNOW me and STILL love me! I think we can sometimes convince ourselves that we don't need people, but I DO!

2. My friends make me a better person. I have friends that will speak into my life and ask me tough questions and help me grow. I have so many super intelligent and amazingly talented friends that I look good just standing next to them! I love that I have friends that nuture the different parts of my soul: my book club, my church friends, my street friends, my college student friends.....so many! Many overlaps here too!

3. There are a lot of people in my life that have moved away to live in other cultures for various reasons. I have been a terrible friend to them! I don't remember to call on skype, mail letters or even email. I hope that being here can help me learn to be a better encourager to those ladies ladies and pray for them.

4. One last thing I have learned is that if you take your kids away from their friends for four months, they will develop new skills, like my boys have learned to use the "countdown" app really well on the Ipad. My daughter has learned how to be a stalker. She looks up all her friends houses on google earth and looks at them when she gets sad. We have been watching yoou.

5. There are amazing people to befriend everywhere, I have loved the new friends I have made and appreciate them making room in their lives for me. I need to always be willing to make "room".

Since I have already mentioned the above you get the idea, you take something for granted, deprive yourself, and then stuff yourself silly when you finally can have it again. So watch out, here I come in one month my friends, your friend Annamae is going to try hard not to be a"gaping hole of sucking need" (I think this is Hunter that said this)but I will bug you, call you and hug your kids like a nut. We are not crazy really we aren't, I have just missed you, love you, and need you. No amount of chocolate can take the place of that, but I gave it a try anyway.....