10/26
Taking the longer route, 9 of us climbed up the hills and trudged down mountain roads to meet the other 11 by sunset. We shimmied over the rocks and stepped into our river cave, claimed to be our second home.
Margarine and cheese sandwiches at everyone’s grinning lips. Sore butts and backs from the sand underneath us and rock walls behind us, but not one of us moved as the laughter outlived the pain.
The stars came out and so did the glow sticks. Soon snipped, a glow covered the ground and rock walls. I walked on a galaxy of multicolored chemical stars. Not a piece of clothing left untouched as the colored sticks flew through the air.
As the silence grew louder, so did the splashing river running just feet from our dancing coal fire.
I so often wonder how I got so lucky. I am living not just my dream, but the dream of so many others. Never allowed to settle, I am constantly being pushed and pulled to become more of all I am to be. “You have an amazing team-” I heard these words for so long from so many. They rolled off of me as an uninformed compliment, unaware for so long the truth behind the common words. I have the best team. Deep relationships perhaps with only half, but I’m realizing that that doesn’t stop me from loving the other half any less. I love all the ugly, lovely parts of my people. My family. They are real people. Each one’s laugh recognizable and honest. I have never known community like this.
God, where were you in this all?
I see you in uncommitted blind yeses before security was found.
I see you in the tears of leaving the familiar.
I see you in the shaky first hellos.
I see you in the cautious smiles of first friends.
I see you in the pain of cutting off dead branches.
I see you in the nervous new fruit.
I see you in the belly laughs of new found family.
And most of all I see Your greatness in my shaky words holding on to my little mustard seed.
our river cave
pic creds: will holt will holt will holt
