Dreams and Hopes...

When one dreams of a place, when one starts talking of hopes for the future, what do they look like?  I have often dreamed of land, children, missions, homesteading... all in Dine Bikeyah area.  But for many years it was just that, a dream.  I was not going to ask really for anyone to do that... Then, my beloved Robby, began to share his dreams for living out in Dine Bikeyah.  And he spoke to my heart...

He spoke of a homestead or sheep camp in the area of Dine Bikeyah, with sheeps, goats, a few horses, rabbits, chickens, gardens, and such.  A home with room for me to do some kinda hospitality/art-music ministry.  And my heart awakens with dreams and with hope.... maybe there is more to fight for then even I knew...

~ "Morria"

Great Thoreau Flood

 Yesterday, monsoon season continued as expected, but what came after has not happened this bad in over 10 years... The Great Thoreau Flood.  Our backyard and drive way turned into a literal river.  I had to rescue our dog Nikida back onto the porch.  The rain had stopped and she had gone out to relieve herself, but in the 2 minuets she was out... the flood hit.  Robby had just walked from the front window to the back, and back to the porch...and it hit between leaving the back window and the front porch.

 We had to wait till our driveway stopped being a river to get over to the church. The church got hit too.  Our back field, which last week we used for a cowboy church service, was "Thoreau Lake" yesterday.  We were blessed with sandbags from the Fire Department, and bagged every door of the church to keep it from leaking through the doors, more than it had at least.  We had pizza and fellowship after cleaning up the church.

Even more unbelievable was the flooding out of the train tracks.  These tracks have been used since the 1890's by first the Mitchel's lines and now the Amtrak and Santa Fe Railroad.  Trains were waiting till about 9 till 10 pm for the water to go down and the tracks to be cleared off enough for the trains to pass.  At 6 pm when I took the pictures, the tracks were still flooded out... It was totally and unbelievable sight!

~ Rob and Michelle 

Torn..

Here I sit in a home soon not to be mine, torn between my life here in Dine Bikeyah and the new life I will lead in Kentucky until our return... Yes, the open road is calling me.  Yes, I am very restless.  BUT  I have so many friends here.  I have a good life here, except for no work... *la sigh* Tis that not work part thats killing me... 11 days and then farewell, for how long I know not... Next time I will ask for more than a year settled down...

Tis not like we don't have friends in Kentucky; we do, and family, too!  It is just we have not lived there in 3 years.  We both have changed, grown, and become different.  We know where "home" is, where we are called.  Until the day we get to settle (though the road will always be part of my life), the day we establish "home base" here in Dine Bikeyah... I will be among the wanderers.  As Tolkin said, "Not all who wanderer are lost."

~ Rob and Michelle