Monday, March 28, 2022                                           (today’s lectionary)
Summing up
Seek good and not evil so that you may live, and the Lord will be with you.
I added up the miles once I got home last night. 2,510 miles from Austin to Evansville to Urbana to Lincoln to Springfield, back to Urbana, back to Lincoln and then on Rte 66 through Illinois and Missouri to Amarillo to Tucumcari to Las Vegas, NM to Santa Fe to Taos … and back again to Austin.
Our white Prius has muddy tires from a thirty mile round trip on Forest Service roads north of Taos to the Lama Foundation. It’s also dusty from those same roads, as well as an eighteen mile stretch of Old Rte 66 from the border at Texola to Shamrock, Texas. All my clothes are dusty too. Everything needs to be washed. I think even my lungs are dusty.
Although I took a small bag into those eight motels (I stayed in one for two nights), basically I lived out of my car. It took awhile to sort out the detritus from the good stuff when I got home. On the last day the only food I had was half a sandwich I had made the day before. But Andi made some vichyssoise and shared it with me when I got to the Tomitas. Cold sweet soup on an 87 degree Texas afternoon. So good!
And amazing also to slide smoothly into place in Austin, knowing which lane to drive the car, finding Andi and Aki’s house without conscious thought, turning my own keys into our own lock on our own apartment door. After all that big wonderful world out there, now there is this very specific, personal place, just for me.
I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me. I will extol you, O Lord, for you drew me clear and did not let my enemies rejoice over me.
I took Margaret to the Austin airport before leaving on March 9, and tonight on March 28 she’ll be landing there again for me to bring her home. To her own bed, to her own grandkids, to her own very specific personal place, just for her.
And now a time to stay put, at least till the end of April, time to wash the car and change the oil, be sure the tires are OK. Two of them are new, after one blew out on a beautiful sunny morning in Mt. Pleasant at the beginning of the trip.
But Shannon and I want to take a short road trip, and we’re going with the Tomitas to Port Aransas in mid-May. And actually even now, I’m looking forward to both those trips. Crazy I am, all on a new day.
I listened to Blue Highways while I drove. In 1978 William Least-Heat Moon drove 14,000 miles in his old pickup, almost all of it on small roads, roads marked in blue as scenic in his atlas. He encircled the country as best he could, starting from and coming back to his home in Columbia, Missouri.
You changed my mourning into dancing; O Lord, my God, forever I will give you thanks.
I also listened to The First Eagle by Tony Hillerman, which like all his books is based in New Mexico, and Comanche Moon by Larry McMurtry, which like most of his books is based in Texas. And I listened to and read from several other books that lit up the days and nights for me with stories of the places I had been, and the places I was going.
 At that time, Jesus left Samaria for Galilee. When he came into Galilee the Galileans welcomed him.
Best of all, as the trip progressed, so did my understanding of what I really needed. Up north of Taos, in my stomping grounds of 46 years ago, during conversations with God I explored what he was asking of me then, and what he was asking of me now, and so that reclamation of a deeper part of myself has begun. I have lots to do in April, but nothing more important than digging, exploring, excavating, polishing, and repairing of … what did Isaiah call it … the walls.
Lo, I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the things of the past shall not be remembered or come to mind.
Just thinking about doing that work brings me peace.
(Isaiah 65, Psalm 30, Amos 5, John 4)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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