letting Natalie cut my hair.

So I got my hair cut in the valley, in Vevey. Those of you who know my territorial attitude regarding my hair and the one person I normally trust it with (e.g. Leticia at Jon' Ric in Naperville), will understand why this is sort of a big deal. I let a Swiss French woman named Natalie cut it. She works at a salon that I liked the looks of. She doesn't speak any English, and my French is laughable (I'm working on it. Or, at least I want to). So this little adventure could've gone a lot of different directions.

It turned out great. She cut off a lot more than I was expecting, but the hair is still inches past my shoulders (at a length I'm telling myself is "professional," since that's so dearly important in my job here) and the cut was excellently done. In fact, I didn't really care about how much she took off, since it was such a pleasure to watch her do it. It felt like I was being sheared. My hair had been longer than it's been in years, and the shape it was in was pretty terrible. What was worse is that I had to keep doing MORE damage to it just to make it look presentable outside of my bedroom.

This brave move (I thought it was brave) is, I believe, personal evidence and confirmation of my further relocation--psychologically, I mean--from Chicago to Switzerland. For the time being, this is where I live. How much can I say about that? Obviously a lot, given the amount of attention given to the subject on this blog. That's enough.

That's the trouble with blogs; they become terribly self-referential.

The bigger point is that once Henri Nouwen said, "Wherever you are, do not easily leave." I don't know how grammatically responsible that sentence is, but I appreciate the sentiment that it's important to stay put and love where you're living, be responsible to it, and give it your attention. My hair is something I see every time I look in a mirror. It was beginning to be distracting, and I kept thinking about how I needed to hold off just seven more weeks until I could get it cut again. I didn't really feel like spending the next seven weeks psychologically in Chicago.

Vacation's almost over for L'Abri's fall break, today is our last day house-sitting. It's hard to believe that the term was only half-way through at October 11.

I really will try to get some pictures up soon.