Welcome Back

Descending into Albuquerque the view below offered a glimpse of one hoped-for expectation for this Epiphany journey. Snow. Just a dusting, but still, my heart felt a tug of promise. 




With the traveling friends reunion complete, we set out for a late meal of wonderfully delicious small dishes. 

                               


Then in for the night at Home2, a new member in the Hilton chain.


I’ve been impatient with detours and road blocks, and the time it seems to take for my heart and soul to heal.  Epiphany in northern New Mexico is filled with balm. 

“An old adage says that if you want to travel fast, travel alone, but if you want to travel far, travel in a community. But even beyond that, if you want to travel with depth, learn the names of flowers along the way, fall in love a thousand times, believe that you can meet the demands of suffering you encounter, speak your truth to power, and live into the mission of your life. Travel together, so you can travel light. Community too is a sign that we need others as we make our way.”  Becca Stevens

Detour

2016 was filled with road blocks and detours.  One of those “road blocks” will open in a few days. 

For the past twenty-two years I’ve traveled to New Mexico during Advent. Advent 2016 passed without the New Mexico trip.  It was hard to miss, hard for me to experience Advent in any way without New Mexico.

But now New Mexico is just ahead. The Advent 2016 road block is about to open, and the journey can begin.  In place of Advent, will be Epiphany in northern New Mexico.

Epiphany is that in between time between Christmas and Lent.  The time when Jesus is baptized and then begins to grow into the role God has chosen for him. As Canon John Thompson-Quartey stated, “In this season of Epiphany, when we are a bit removed from the baby in the creche, we are now faced with a grown up God who walks among us as Jesus of Nazareth.”


I’m in kind of an in-between time myself.  A time between the work and the roles I have shed, and the mantle of new work and roles I’m about to don.

I guess sometimes there may be reasons for road blocks and detours.  More importantly is how one deals with these un-planned-for happenings, both from the perspective of dealing with uncertainity and change, and perhaps even seeing them as opportunities for needed change.

All this to say, tomorrow I fly away- literally!  For retreat with my best traveling friend in a small town nestled in a snow-covered valley in northern New Mexico.  I can smell the pinon fires, I can taste the blue corn enchiladas, I can imagine the beauty and the bitter cold.  I am so ready!