Circles, Part 1

Today ended up being a longer drive than expected, I'm not sure why. Perhaps because we had a hard time getting going in the morning? Maybe because we encountered some headaches with the financing for our new home in MA that required some difficult phone conversations, emailing and faxing. I guess that would do it! Despite all of this we crossed the Mississippi in Memphis, Tennessee around noon and stopped by the river to contemplate the water, wonder at where it had come from and where it was going to... In the afternoon our route weaved us in and out of northern Mississippi and Alabama, through acres of beautiful farmland and past sleepy old ranches and southern mansions. The magnolia trees were in full bloom as were the dogwoods and cherry trees. Patches of daffodils peeked shyly in unexpected places. The air was warm and heavy. I labored a little to breathe it in, marvelling at what it was like to exchange the oxygen-thin yet arid mountain air I was used to for the denser, humid air of the south. We skirted briefly through northwestern Georgia before finally arriving in the southeast corner of Tennessee and another significant milestone. We had arrived in the east coast time zone! We spent a lovely evening with old friends in Chatanooga. Kevin had been best man at our wedding. It was so lovely to see he and his family again.

The kiddos were quiet today, all tired I guess. I had lots of time for musing. I was thinking about the full circle my life has taken. The first time I set foot in the US was in Boston in 1992. Since then my travels have taken me to central New York, west to northern California, then to Arizona. It seems like now, Hubby and I are just completing the circle, closing the loop neatly back in the northeast, drawing all the threads together. Hubby's job has been the impetus for our travels. Over the years he has worked with Native American tribes in Alaska, Maine, New York, California, Arizona and now returns to serve the ten tribes in the Northeast. However it is during the past ten years in Arizona where we interacted the most with tribal members and were offered little glimpses from time to time of their culture. It was inevitable in some ways. Afterall we lived within a few miles of the reservation, I received my primary health care at the reservation hospital and it was at a little mission Church on the reservation that MaeMae and Little Guy were baptized, we chose to worship every sunday and where I led music ministry. It was in that beautiful old mission church in fact where I was first told that I was sick, months before any doctor ever gave me a diagnosis, before the babies, before the swollen lymphnodes, before the night sweats, before the weight loss....