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Yesterday I went for a walk with Debbie to the catacomb park. We took the train there and walked around the path, sitting on a bench and watching people go by.

I told her how I’d been feeling FOMO (fear of missing out) and trying to do everything perfectly.

She looked at me and said, “It’s all about finding joy in the Lord isn’t it. No matter what season or area of life we are in, we will always have that fear of missing an opportunity and not doing enough. Contentment only comes when we rest in God and find peace and joy in the moment he has placed us."

The afternoon was one of the first times I started to feel that peace. We didn’t do anything super special. We walked back and stopped at a new grocery store. But walking around the store I had so much fun just being in the moment. Looking at all the different brands and finding some new snacks. Taking time to appreciate the differences between American and Italian grocery stores. The meat and cheese and pasta is such a center piece, each having their own aisle. And the fresh fish sitting out on ice. All the wine is super cheap at 3 euros a bottle. I also was able to find some gluten free items that I might use on my own and granola bars. It was also funny to see the ice cream section with the gelato right next to the Ben and Jerry’s on the shelf.

We checked out and walked back to the convent. I’m loving getting natural exercise, I get 12-15,000 steps in a day without even trying. And 20,000 if I go into the city.

We came back and I wanted to continue the feeling of peace. I just stayed at the convent and made myself food. I loved getting to talk with students who were also staying here. And because I was present it opened up some fun conversations in the kitchen. And I didn’t feel pressure when everyone was leaving to go have dinner in the city.

Later we went as a small group to the tea room and it was amazing! Such a perfect spot for our group because they all love speaking in British accents. The room was filled with tea cups and flags and a life size poster of the queen. And a bobble head queen. We paid our respects as we walked by. We sat and ordered our tea and each of us got a different tea cup. When he brought out the teapot we all stopped talking as we looked at this little English cottage with a spout on the side. Too cute. We laughed over our tea and each girl doing an impression of an English accent.

We went around the table to share. Usually I would do a high, low buffalo. We decided we would call them a Roma, Caputa and Mamma Mia. It has a nice ring to it when you say it all together. Roma is something good from the week. Caputa is something bad from the week (inspired by Suara Antonella telling us the coffee machine was “Caputa” a word you understand in any language) and Mamma Mia is anything funny or random from the week.

It was really beautiful to see these girls come together. They encouraged each other and we all shared our hearts. But most of all everyone shared that they were excited about what God was going to do in this season. And I kept thinking about the question - What does success look like? And success looks like all of us growing closer to Jesus and being transformed more and more into His image. That was my prayer as we ended our time. That we would look back at this tea and be amazed about how much God did.