New Years

For New Years, I flew out to Kansas City to see Bob & Carol and then LASP friends. Charlotte's adorable as ever - I got to experience her incredible bouncing skills. She's talented - I can tell. :) We got tapas and mojitos at a cool Mexican place and then headed over to their friends' house to have poker tournament - it was so good to just hang out and have fun. :)


The next morning, I met with Jenny from Costa Rica for breakfast which was amazing - I love that girl. :) She's so darling. After a long, wonderful conversation, we headed over to Mindy's house in Kansas and went straight from there over to the O'Neils. Their son, Nate, who was in our program, passed away last summer in a motorcycle accident - right before he headed to Brazil to do some micro-economic development. I don't think there's ever an appropriate explanation for why things happen - more simply that they do. Their family is healing little by little and it was an amazing blessing to sit with his family and reminisce, listen to their pain and their joys and just be. We hung out there for a while, as the snow fell outside the cabin and we chatted, all warm and cozy inside...

The snow was absolutely breathtaking. To me, it feels as if these pictures are only taken by photographers - not actually experienced in real life. To experience snow for the 2nd time (actual snowfall, not the substance itself) was a beautiful wonderland of marvel. While I'd NEVER want to live in it, the moments were wonderful. :)

Afterwards, we ended up going to Applebees for dinner and then playing games, reading poetry and talking till late in the night. It was so good to reconnect with a lot of the people from my old program - interesting that we experienced a lot of the same transitional struggles... some are still in that struggling point and others have moved beyond... all are such amazing thinkers... what a gift to be able to use your mind and deduce and reason while also using your heart to love and feel beyond reason. We are such amazing creations... :)