GO! Prate

This last week, I have been blessed with the presence of four very good friends of mine from college, T.J., Meg, Alexis, and Kevin.  These clowns drove all the way out from New York, through multiple snow storms, to come out and visit.  It is easy to feel loved when a car full of people you love and have missed pulls up, people flying out of every door, all ready to give you a hug.

This week has been filled with tons and tons of the things I love - lots of music and singing, and the joy that comes with that.  T.J. has been a friend for a long time, and is my musical mentor - he is someone who gives me so much encouragement and energy to do something I love, and the opportunity to play with him again is something I had been looking forward to for months.  It made my heart swell.  Hiking the land with these friends, watching them smile and laugh, and fall silent before the sky and the setting sun.  Good food, but more importantly, good fellowship.  Huge meals with a mosaic family, some new and some old, all brought together to love and laugh.  

I am full.  Full means I can empty, I can give, I can let all of this joy and love flow out to others, in my work, in my community, with total strangers.  Having good friends, old friends, come to remind you how much you are cared for, to remind you where you've come from, and that they still love - it's good for the soul.

I have observed and learned a few things this last week.  Something that I have always known was a talent and  passion was creating fellowship among people who otherwise may never have met.  If I am honest, I do know a lot of people, people from very different circles and walks of life.  It is such a joy for me to bring people into contact with one another, to give people I care about the opportunity to meet each other and share love and laughter.  I look around my house this week, and I see my community mates, who I have come to love so deeply in these last few months.  I see four familiar faces, four friends who I have shared many memories with.  I see Richard, a local friend who has inspired me tremendously.  I see my ciye, Allen, my mentor and friend who has supported and taught me so much in our short time together.  Anna, a fellow volunteer who I have come to respect tremendously, and whose company I greatly enjoy.  I see new faces, John and Steve, Toni and Nelly and their sons, all come to teach us hand games and share in our joy.  It is good to see so many people, and so much joy in one place.  People from ALL the different spheres of my life coming together to share love and life with each other.

I have traveled a good bit in my young life, and there are pieces of my heart all over this country - all over this world.  Spain, and Chile, and Israel, the Navajo nation, Texas, New York, Chicago, China - everywhere I have been I have met people whom I love deeply and have given my heart to.  To see some of these parts come together and love each other, that is a blessing.