Ah... to see the world!
Taking cues from image-rich advertisements and alluring invitations to shed the ordinary and embark on a change of scenery it would seem that traveling outside our home space and native culture would be pure adventure. That's certainly the selling point! In any case I've always yearned to see the world outside of my own childhood's backyard. Joining the Congregation of the Mission provided that opportunity (among many other gifts and challenges!), even if it meant changing locations every few years, from Texas to California to Missouri to Illinois to Arkansas. Still, this was modest when compared to leaving my home shores.....
I have often considered those eight years in the quiet northern rural "outback" of 1980's Guatemala as the pinnacle of my own "wanderlust." That's where I learned the simple Spanish that I now use daily, and discovered a new-found respect for "cultures other than my own." Indeed, much of who I am and what I can now see and understand began there.
But France, well... it's been different for me, ranging from long stretches of keenly felt personal isolation to an exciting formal introduction to the world-wide Congregation of the Mission and our even more expansive "Vincentian Family".
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| Paris Mother House, St Vincent de Paul Chapel: CIF participants celebrate Eucharist in September, 2016. At center back row is the French Provincial Christian Mauvais, CM, Sr. Kathleen Appler, (Mother General, FdlC), and Fr. Tomaz Mavric, (Father General, CM). (Blogger, Dan Borlik, is in front row, far right) |
No doubt, by traveling and living abroad one can learn many things. Gaining experience and developing new skills and friendships, however, are only part of personal growth and, even more specifically, of living abroad. Since summer, 2011, when I began the "project" of living and working in Paris, France, there was certainly the joy of discovery, of adding new places and friendships. But, surprisingly, what I felt more keenly, and what I'll remember most, is my struggle with loss. Loss of a young man's professional self-assurance that comes along with many years developing habits and skill-sets in my home culture, loss of my parents and some friends, loss of my younger self's seemingly endless energy and optimism.
Now, carrying much less than what I once had, I embark on a gradual return journey to my home culture, where I hope to work and live for many more years. The first part of that journey will take place here in Europe, mostly France and Italy. I'm sharing the hospitality of my confreres, fellow members of the Congregation of the Mission, reading and reflecting, and hoping to learn to say a proper good-bye to one part of the world before I can really say hello to another.
Now, carrying much less than what I once had, I embark on a gradual return journey to my home culture, where I hope to work and live for many more years. The first part of that journey will take place here in Europe, mostly France and Italy. I'm sharing the hospitality of my confreres, fellow members of the Congregation of the Mission, reading and reflecting, and hoping to learn to say a proper good-bye to one part of the world before I can really say hello to another.
