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Michelle:  Mother Nature
 

As I walked into the Bus Stop Bookstore I noticed an advertisement for dreads on the door and preceded to write down the phone number when a sweet voice billowed over the pages of the book she was quietly reading.  The voice said, “Are you looking to get dreads?”  I replied, “yes” and she informed me that her name was Michelle and she was the one on the advertisement.  During our brief conversation that day we learned that we had many things in common:  a love for travel and culture, a taste for organic foods and  the preparation of vegetarian cuisine, a love for nature and the outdoors,  a love for simple things, and being barefoot.  Before I left, she and I arranged a time to meet so that I could come back and have her complete my dreads.  We both parted ways excited to get to know more interesting commonalities. 

 


On Monday I met her at the bookstore and we got cozy as she sat on the orange leather cushions and I sat in front of her.  We sipped herbal tea as she began refining the dreads I already had and began the tedious and patient process of teasing, knotting, crocheting, and tangling my hair.  It took about 6 hours to complete the process so I had a long time to hear Michelle’s story. 


  

One thing I quickly noticed about Michelle is that she has an organic beauty that exudes from behind her hippy-esque attire.  She has a deep passion for the environment and taking care of the earth (Michelle calls the earth, “She” refering to Mother Nature)  Michelle has a peaceful presence and a very sweet energy about her.  But, one thing you could not miss about Michelle is that she is about to burst life.  She is pregnant and due in less than 4 weeks now.  We began her story backwards from her pregnancy and how she is planning and preparing for her natural, in-home child birth.  This is exactly what I want to do one day, so I had lots of questions to ask her, which she enjoyed answering because it made her think through the process she is about to go through, calming fears she had been worrying about.  She had so much wisdom and insight to share.  I can’t wait to see a picture of her beautiful baby.  They don’t know the sex of the baby yet, or have any names picked out at all.  When they see their baby  they are expecting the name to just come to them.  I love that. 

 
You might be wondering who is the father.   Well, after Michelle and I discussed delivering her baby naturally I asked her about the baby’s Father as well.  His name is Daniel and he is a local Guatemalan who makes silver jewelry, a difficult art because of the skill and precision of the refining process.  I know the next question you are pondering is, “How did they meet?”  Well, I was definitely wondering that especially since Michelle is from Australia.   Michelle shared with me how she migrated to Guatemala by chance on a detour she planned last  minute from California to London.  She stopped in Guatemala and fell in love with the scenery and atmosphere.  So, after her brief excursion she finally made it home to Australia only to gather some things to return to Lake Atilan.  She has not left since.  She met Daniel here and fell completely in love with him and now they are going to raise a beautiful baby together.  At this point we had to leave the bookstore, so I helped her close up the shop and we went to find Daniel.  I got to meet him as we sat on the street completing the dreads as tourists and passers by stared at me in bewilderment.  One lady even commented rudely, “Why are you destroying your hair?  Don’t you know your going to have to cut that all out.”  Michelle retorted politely, “To some people dreads are beautiful.” 
 

The fact that Michelle was about to give birth was symbolic as she meticulously mended my hair into place.  She is about to spring forth life and I am going through my own alteration of sorts.  Visibly it is just my hair that is changing, but this race is transforming me internally, birthing new life in me and shattering my old ways of thinking.  This race is destroying my old sense of “normal” and cultivating a new sense of my role in the Kingdom. 
 
I began to drift off into thought as Michelle finished the last few strands.  I thought to myself about why I thought dreads were beautiful from a metaphorical sense.  You see, I am a visionary and I like to find connections and parallels in things.  So whenever I find a connection, a non-coincidence, a God orchestrated connection I praise God.  I see the world differently than most.  Every single day pieces of a bigger picture fall all around me that are just waiting to be discovered.  I grab them up and place them carefully in my pocket just waiting for another piece to be discovered.  I am treasure hunting and putting the pieces together to form a beautiful collective masterpiece.  I try to decipher and arrange the pieces until I have a new picture entirely and I love to share these innovative breakthrough’s with the world.  So just as Michelle finished the last dread I realized that there are going to be more pieces to this story; more beauty to be found in this mess.