#071815

07.18.15

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A much needed day of relaxation.  Brunch at Community Food and Juice.  A visit to the alma mater.  Caught Woody Allen’s new movie.  Nice walk home.  

Dad and I drove together to my great gramma’s party and gramma’s house after Youa’s graduation party, and the entire two hour trip consisted of dad lecturing me about fundraising and ministry and God and fundraising and business and ministry and fundraising. At first I was super irritated because my dad started by talking about how he wanted to be able to have normal conversations with me, but the way things work in Hmong culture is that when a person older than you speaks, you sit and listen until they’ve said what they wanted to say. And so I let him talk and waited for my turn to join the conversation…I never got a turn. But during my listening I feel like I was able to understand my dad a bit more. I realized that dad is just really worried about me. He literally tried to share every ounce of wisdom he’s gained over the past 50 years during that two hour drive and it really opened my eyes to how he felt. I’ve never asked him about anything before really so he’s never shared anything with me either. I could sense the longing in his heart to share the things he’s learned, the things he’s learning, and I could sense his concern for me in it. I could tell that part of him doesn’t trust that God will equip me for the work He’s called me to and so dad’s just carrying this burden of feeling as if he must be the one to teach me all these things but not knowing how because I never ask him questions…