Haiku My Heart -Bird and Bell in Sue and Raf's Backyard

Bell song and bird song
Trembling, rustling, and trilling
Cool breezes kissing

On the Road #2 - The Road to Albuquerque

What a busy two days.  Didn't post/blog anything yesterday.  Barely got the pictures edited from yesterday.  Two night at Tinker AFB in Oklahoma City now.  Driving to Ada, OK tomorrow for Indian grandmother genealogy search (Don).  More catching up tomorrow night too before heading to Texas to spend a few days with blogging friend  Sue Ficke Seibert and her husband, Rafe.  Then on to Missouri.  I didn't realize keeping up with this stuff on the road would be so time consuming.  Thank goodness (and Don) for a paper journal.  Tomorrow I start writing and prepping before night time entries.

From the crazy to the sublime, the little collage above gives you a taste of what we saw from the road on Sunday.  And mind you, this is just a taste.  The statue is the side altar at St. Ann's Catholic Church in Needles.  The image is St. Ann embracing her daughter, Mary, the Mother of God.  

We discovered that Arizona and and New Mexico are big on roadside kitch.  Dinosaurs are everywhere.  Also, lots of broken billboards - note the one above.  I don't have a clue but it struck me as wildly funny.

Finally, from a distance of many miles, we could see these two smoke stacks.  Arizona is rich in coal and I guessed that this would be an electricity producing plant using coal as it's energy source.  I was right.

More later, Pictures galore and if I don't keep up, I'll never keep this stuff straight.

On the Road #1 - The Road to Needles

As drives go, Turlock to Needles is pretty easy.  It's all long, flat freeway and highway.  Even with a break for lunch on the east side of Bakersfield, we were able to do the drive in 8 hours.  At dinner, we called Quanah (our son) in Indiana because Don wanted to claim bragging rights for the great mileage.  We traveled 461 miles on 3/4 of a tank of gas.  Not too shabby.

Dinner was at the Juicy's River Cafe next to the motel.  Nice little place.  Friendly waitresses and super good spaghetti and meatballs.  Dessert was an also super good deep dish cherry pie with ice cream that we shared.  Yum.

The road to Needles is not pretty, especially in the winter.  Everything is brown and dry.  But, it does have a particular beauty in its rough hardness.  Trains run along the hillsides and go in and out of a series of tunnels; the wide open areas don't necessarily run in a straight line.  For a world that looks like there is nothing there, it is remarkably full of obstructions that need to be avoided.  Hence, long, sweeping arcs in the landscape provide pathways for freight travel.  

Curiously, for a short time we find ourselves traveling through a green area.  When all is dark, dry, rocky and covered in dust and decaying buildings, we discover an oasis of green and the town that lives there, appropriately enough, is called  Newberry Springs.  The name gives the clue for the green that doesn't live anywhere else on the road in this dry winter.

It is a very masculine world dotted with boron and borax plants, acres of wind fields, and more acres covered in solar panels.  It is a prime world for creating alternate energy sources.

Tomorrow we start with a bang.  Up at six.  Breakfast and seven.  Mass at eight at St. Ann's Church.  An old church, built in 1921 to replace the original one from 1889 (destroyed in a 1920 fire),  I'm excited because I know there will be some great photo-ops there.  And if there isn't, I'll be so disappointed.  After that, we will be on the road to Albuquerque, NM.

Mission Post #23 - My Moment Has Passed

Thank you, God, the slump did not last too long.  I packed this morning; discovered I had entirely overlook gloves, hat, and scarves.  Rumor has it that it's cold in the winter back east so having these will be essential outer wear.  

I got my shoes (Clark's) and they will more than do for rain, snow, and ice without me have to deal with the constriction of boots.  I so DID. NOT. LIKE. wearing boots after wearing them around the house.  Returned them undamaged so they were good for resale.

Such a mundane post but not all days need to be filled with insight and discovery.  Sometimes we just have ordinary days.  In fact, most of our days are, no doubt, more ordinary than not.  

I hope that with prayer and a life of no distractions and focus on service that the negative committee that hangs out on the edges of my mind, like relentless squatters, will finally move on.  There comes a time in all of our lives when we want, more than anything, to abide in peace and stillness and still be wide open to people and have an expectations of a positive experience.

Mission Post #22 - I'm having a moment

Is it possible to go into a pre-travel slump?  I'm at 57 hours until departure and counting.  Suddenly I am sad and yearning and looking back and I haven't even gone forward (let along GONE) yet.

I'm feeling a bit achy inside and I feel a hole widening where my heart usually is.  It sort of feels like a sinkhole  

I'm starting to miss my little dog even though I'm still here.  

I'm realizing that Don and I will be on top of each other continuously for five months.  No surprise about that but the reality of it is hitting me.  I need to sort that one out.

I so enjoy having Kris and Adrian around that I don't want to be away from that so soon after their return.  

I feel like I'm running out of time.

I'm at the point where I am now packing.  The suitcases feel so small.  Taking what you need for five months feels like so much.  

I returned the boots I bought.  I put on socks and suddenly they were too small.  I have lots of socks.  I have two pairs of  shoes I'm bringing with me.  One pair is good for wet, the other - not so much.  I may have to solve this problem on the road.


I have a stack of books and five inches worth of binders filled with reading material.  There will be three cameras, one laptop, a mouse, and cords galore.  

I haven't even considered that I might need a more multi-use purse to carry with me that can handle everything from lipstick to a laptop.  I think two suitcases has turned into three since I have a tote good for carrying a laptop, etc.

So - I'm having a moment and am starting to feel anxious.  I'm feeling a little nauseous.  We have a date to meet with the kids tonight and fill them in on everything they need to know about the house and where to find our important papers . . . in the event . . .

Oh, and what is that little basket next to the binders, you might be asking?  It's my Christmas gift from Don - a selection of Victorian themed stationary.  Paper.  Envelopes.  Cards.  Postcards.  Two journals.  

Along with updating on Facebook and blogging, we will be keeping in touch the old fashion way and journaling nightly while we are on the road.  Friends, there is a book in the making.

Mission Post #21 - Preparing for a different world

Sr. Darlene wrote to use this week and shared some thoughts with us as we make our final preparations for the trip to Missouri.

"Now that the wedding preparations are behind you, you can truly begin to prepare yourselves for the journey and life God has called you to here in Pemiscot County.  I urge you t open yourself in prayer, asking that you will find the many gifts God has placed here for you.  I join you in this prayer.  We must always remember that our lives must also be transformed by the God who calls us and by those he calls us to be with.

 . . . Even though you are not coming to a foreign country, you are entering a different culture and way of life.  We will discuss this when you get here.  In mission, we are called to be both Martha and Mary.  We must learn to achieve a balance between the two ways of being.  We must not always seek the business.  We must learn to treasure the quiet and the time to be totally present to Christ in prayer or in sitting with another. . . ."

I must admit, I've thought of the different world I am committed to stepping into.  I've been to this small town on the Mississippi only twice; both times were short visits but I felt the huge cultural divide even then.  There is a slowness of pace that I'm very unfamiliar with.   The manner of speaking is so slow that I actually found myself slowing down my listening in order to not get ahead of the direction of conversation and then discover I've made a wrong turn.  The relationships between people seem to be more formal and conform to patterns of interaction that are not at all casual. 

Don is very familiar with this world.  I am not.  I told him yesterday, as we discussed it, that my first couple of weeks there, I intended to keep my mouth carefully shut and my ears wide open.  I have a lot to learn and not to much time to learn it in.

Mission Post #20

Two things have competed for my attention this year; Krista's wedding and the departure for our mission trip to Missouri.  Krista's wedding is passed us now - Dec. 29th.  And now I can concentrate on packing up my life for the next five months.

Don, who is much more organized and focused than I am, has been working on aspects of our travel for several months now.  He has made three separate trip binders; one for Catholic shrines we will be visiting, a second for Civil War sites, and a third for our maps showing us the itinerary, military lodging, and people we will be visiting along the way.

I know I leave a lot of the burden of this trip to him.  I would wing it, if I could.  But, that is not in his nature and people who CAN wing it, are the very people who find it easier to step back and let the organizers take over.  I'm really grateful for what he does and acknowledge that a little (or a lot) of planning isn't a bad thing at all.

So, now it is January 1st.  We leave in nine days.  I think that is enough time for me to figure my packing out.  I hope.