going home

back in the midwest, i was glad to drive through corn fields the other day. it was oddly comforting.

and last i drove to an ice cream shop where i wasted hours upon hours hanging out (my best friend in high school worked there) to meet a good friend i have known since i was thirteen.i took less than five minutes to drive there from my parents house... with traffic.

i used to think that was so far away.

geographically and metaphorically... it used to be a small world for me. i can't believe the way it has expanded in the last two years since i have lived in california, the last three since i graduated from college, the last seven since i finished high school and the last eleven since i started high school. whew!

and yet, coming back home know involves a kind of culture shock as well. i go to a church event i find myself one of three out of ten under the age of forty-five. i crave fresh produce and salad that i eat all the time in cali. i roll my eyes when i drive a distance that in downtown oakland would be absolutely silly not to walk.

and from here, i will embark on another journey saturday morning, to the dominican republic. in someways, it is a journey home as i will be spending a week with folks who i remember from church when i was little, folks who played softball with my dad, whose kids i went to high school with. in some ways it will be a vacation, because i have no leadership role, no responsibility, the details have been covered and had nothing to do with me... a long time since i took a "mission" trip where that was the case. and in someways it is a retreat, a chance to spend real, intentional time with God... time i should make more room for in my daily life but have a hard time doing.