tenemos gracias.

i'm thankful for:

- my nice, fresh salad tonight with sprouts, beans, and black olives

- the 5 kids at camp that all speak Spanish and their willingness to put up with my choppy/gringa conversations over Connect Four

- the discount grocery store - and my healthy cereal with lots of fiber

- the smell of the cottonwood trees on my walk home that reminds me of my aunt's front yard in Alaska

- the sound of the rain falling on the roof of the port-o-let

- kids that want to help put stuff back in the shed

- counselors that make me laugh

- my morning-time filled with quiet, coffee, reflection and prayer

- good, adventurous fiction to come home to at the end of the day

poverty and dance

May all your expectations

be frustrated.

May all you plans be thwarted

May all of your desires

be withered into nothingness,

that you may experience the powerlessness and

poverty of a child and sing and dance

in the love of God the Father,

the Son and the Spirit.

-----

~ This ‘blessing’ was prayed over Henri Nouwen by his spiritual mentor

-----

I've been experiencing this sort of

powerlessness/poverty as of late.

and as many other themes I see in Jesus' life, the theme of

brokenness, is one I'd rather avoid. It's one I'd rather

maybe not completely understand

and only admire from a distance...

yet, i trust you God and i wait.

family, flowers, and fairfield county

ok, i feel like i didn't do my time in Connecticut justice by just briefly mentioning it as an attachment or side note to my Guatemalan experiences... i mean, it was really last minute - but we had a phenomenal four days in Fairfield County visiting Matt's family --- Frisbee golf, cousin Mike, nature walks, flower houses, salmon dinners, swinging in the shade, sipping fair trade Rwandan coffee in the sun, probably the best pizza i've ever had and bagels that are hard to beat, burgundy leaves, blooming trees, ocean smells, harbours down the street, good conversation, old family photographs, high school punk band memorabilia, pedicures with Matt's wonderful mother, the biggest houses i've ever seen and precious white wooden church steeples --- i experienced just about as much culture shock in Connecticut as in Latin America --- Fairfield County is about the opposite of "small town Northeast Texas" -

and i love it!

You always here about "Boston in the Fall," but let me tell you

"Connecticut in the Spring" is no less fulfilling.

here are some pics:

Matt's childhood home, built before Texas
ever thought about being a state

Mother's Day dinner at the harbour in Norwalk

nice walk home

walking along shore of Long Island Sound

Botanical Gardens in the Bronx with the fam

I am so thankful for my time in Connecticut - it was perfect and charming

and i'll always treasure it.