First, I would just like to encourage you to read something that my friends wrote, and that is quite relevant to my life and thoughts and is a basis for how I am trying to form my style of life from here on out. It is at Aaron
Well... on to a bit of an update.
Currently, quite busy coordinating the different aspects of my ¨job¨. (If you haven`t caught on yet, what I do here can hardly be quantified as a single ¨job¨ since I work in totally unrelated things in distinct towns, etc.). For example, I am working with 3 communities helping them to learn how to take care of bees and produce honey, while at the same time trying to strengthen their organizational abilities in order to have a sustainable community Asociation that can maintain a small business in the future (which would be the sale of the produced bee products). Second, I am working with a group of high school students in a variety of things from literacy classes that they are giving to older women in the community, to leadership training for them that I am trying to weave into our weekly meetings, to a trip out to the beach in order to see a new place, meet some other similarly organized youth groups, and do some more leadership ¨training¨ (as well as covering other topics like sex, drugs, environmental issues, etc.). Additionally, I am working with 4 communities on reforestation issues and 2 communities on community savings and loans groups.... yikes. Oh yeah, trying to help another group make a web page.
haha... I guess that I shouldn`t be saying it like this becuase it sounds like I am bragging. Really, in all of these activities I am learning much more than I am teaching. My primary role is to motivate the participants and to provide organizational assistance (i.e. when and where are we meeting, what are the important issues, who is taking responsibility for this and that task, etc.). The people and groups with whom I am working do the majority of the work.
I must say: it is interesting.
If you read my previous entries, I just want to encourage you: Keep looking for the small miracles which surround us in every day, maintain diligence (and find joy in) being as kind as possible to as many people as possible (how can I be kind to him-her in this moment?), and look for opportunities to give people Home as well as recognizing those moments when you are at Home.
I say this to you, in order to remember to do it myself. Because I think that those things are just a re-frasing of ¨Do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with Your God.¨ May the Divine Love shine through uslike rays of sunshine through dark clouds!
(man... what a corny poet I am... I`m glad that y`all know me and can imagine me waxing eloquent... haha)
Un Dicho
A famous quote:
Al caminar se hace el camino.
Walking one makes the path.
Something to meditate on.
How I found Home... you have to read til the very end.
Had a great time visiting family and friends in the States; a great vacation! I have been back for about 2 weeks now and am all settled in.
I could write a ton about my trip... bike riding with my parents, my little sister`s 21st birthday, chilling with my bro and Bethany, a road trip down south, an amazing time spent with great friends, sledding on ice blocks in TX, a beautiful wedding of a beautiful pair who have a beautiful relaionship and I`m sure will become even more beautiful together, and a great few days in Chicago where I saw some good friends, my godson and his precious big-sister, and was able to say good-bye to Mom, Dad, Katie, and chat wihth Aunt Brenda, Uncle Bob.
This has actually been a huge month for me… a visit to the States and then a week after getting back my town had its once annual Town Bash. Every year during the second weeked of August Santa Ana, my town, swells to at least double (probably triple) its normal size. Starting on Friday, everyone dances, drinks, and celebrates from mid-afternoon until the next morning. Saturday morning is for recuperation and then back at it until Sun morning… and then once more Sunday until Mon morn.
I really only participated Saturday, but it was awesome! I hung out all afternoon with friends chatting and I made my way to a few different houses. Then we danced a bit in the afternoon until evening and went to eat dinner. After dinner went back to dance and chat. At about 10:00 they lit the castillo (¨The Castle¨), which is a construction about 30 ft tall that is an interconnection of fireworks - think dominos. It is awesome... and kind of crazy because we were only standing about 20 ft away dodging some of the low-flying ones and the ones that fall from the sky still on fire.
Following that excitement, went back to take a bit of a nap and returned to the action around midnight... just in time to see my next-door-neighbor be crowned the Queen of Santa Ana. (She`s great, so I was glad to see her win.). Following that we danced and danced and danced and I finally crashed into my pillow around 4:00am.
I guess my final thought for you all is about Home. I had a great conversation at about 3-4 in the morning somewhere in the state of Illinois (and maybe into Missouri) with some good friends and we had some good thoughts I think. Worth sharing at least.
I do not believe that Home is a place. Maybe the place you call ¨home¨ is where one experiences Home most often... or frequently felt it in the past. However, I believe that Home is the ability that one has at certain moments or with certain people to feel completely Ones-Self... to be comfortable with whom and ¨where¨ (in all of the meanings of that word... not just location but your current spot in the journey of life) you are. The peace of knowing that ¨I am accepted just as I am without having to prove anything to anyone or be anything for anyone.¨
I experienced this Home in the house of my parents, in a car traveling 80mph down the interstate, on a small hill at the campus of UT and I also experienced Home drinking tea in Ibarra, on a dirt road between a river and a mountain, in a dirt house surrounded by sugar cane, and in the middle of a thousand black Ecuadorians dancing.
I thank God for the miracle of Home and I pray that each of you experience it... and recognize It for what It is wherever It may find you. Don´t limit it to a specific city or a specific house... find Home in the miracles that constantly surround you.
