The Fierceness of Borders and Distance

Wanmai

As I write, squalls are contorting drifts of snow around our van in the driveway.

Micah

And while my late-January self may experience various degrees of dismay, I know some kids who would be more than delighted for a chance to get out and play in all the white wildness of it.

Muay

I'll see them very soon, so yay!!!!!

February 24 to March 18 are the dates now confirmed for my next visit to Hot Springs.  This is a solo trip, something I haven't done since November 2022, and an opportunity for the kinds of interactions and ministry tasks best done when I'm there alone (or with Ken when he comes along).   More the business side of things, and visioning and long, unhurried conversations about how life goes when you're raising 21 kids.  

Photo by Anu

Tara, Jua, Micah, Goon

I wish I could bring some snow.

Jonah

We'll have to settle for an indoor snowball fight, courtesy of Karen and the fuzzy fabric 'snowballs' she sent along on a previous trip.  And that's okay, because it was pretty hilarious when we broke them out last time.

Meena

I guess if I look at the calendar, it's only been just a little over two months since I was last there.  That's not long, I know.  But so much has happened here, in my life on this side of the planet, that it feels like much, much longer.  That's kind of the way it goes for me.  Here and there.  Both and and.  Opposite time zones, identical passions.  I might have thought one would get used to it.  Except, no.  

Tharit

In describing her own torn-between-two-places heart, blogger Kristin Breitkreutz asks,

"What am I supposed to do when an unlimited love is constrained by borders and confronted by distance?" 

Tara

After sixteen years of doing this, I don't really have an answer for her.  Except to embrace the fierceness of it, the vibrancy such longings back and forth bring to life.  

Colour

On to packing then.  

While the wind howls.