It has been 3 years seen I have been here, and I don't just mean since I was in Wichita... For the last 3 years I have lived in the land of bright blue skies, monsoons, and deep snows. Some call it the badlands of New Mexico, I call it Dine Bikeyah, the land of the Navajo, the land of the people. I left part of my heart there for sure, and soon hope to return, this time 100% myself...
You see, when I left Chicago and came to Wichita in 2009, I thought I could not be me, and go where I was going...
I thought there was no place for the gal in black and brown, with her gypsy, wild west, steampunk, tribal tastes. Yet time has taught me otherwise... I can be 100% me and still be where I want to be and live the life I am called to. That is not an easy lesson, being authentic, to be a ragamuffin.... but it is one well worth learning. I have learned living in the here and now, letting go my fears, being myself, keeping hungry for Truth, being adaptable/flexible, being grateful, and learning to be more merry/light hearted, are helping so much....
So, as I step out of the wrong shadows in which I hid for so long, and pull off my mask to be myself, I say to you, "
Seek out who you are and what you are to be. Find where you are both challenge and at home (yes, at the same time), and get busy doing what you are meant to do!"
~ "Morria"
Winds of change, as we have been in Kansas helping family out... but work is not forth coming. We love our friends, we love my adopted family, we wish we could spend more time with my birth family... but we have to think of what is best our little family, to, get back into ministry, and back to Dine Bikeyah. It might take a while, but we will get back. For now Kentucky is the next stop...
Here we are, off the mission field for 5 months, and still no word about a new assignment or which district on the Rez we will be working with. Our hearts are homesick for our Navajo family out in Dine Bikeyah. Winter is in full force out in the high desert, and it would be very cold if we were there now. How distant it seems... Who knows what this new year holds for us?
Thanksgiving, a day set aside to remember all we have to be thankful for. Basically, a day to count all our blessings and name them one by one, since we seem to struggle to remember the rest of the year. *la sigh* It is also a time to gather with friends old and new, and eat wonderful feasts. This year we were with friends, the Ottens, in Bethoud, CO, with their family.
Blessings we have this thanksgiving:
