Dame Edith and Java MamaI think it all started with my friend Java Mama. I knew Java Mama from church in the 1980's. Well, actually I didn't know her. I knew she was a nurse. Period. One Sunday I tapped her on the shoulder and asked if she would like to go to Haiti.
"Ok."
The rest is history.
We bonded over canned food and coffee cooked on sterno and cute Haitian babies. We guarded the outhouse for one another in Babylon and dove under a church pew together when the witch doctor decided to kill us one evening by stoning us.
We climbed a mountain together to get to a remote village. A tiny little girl kept trying to get Java Mama's suitcase away from her and Java Mama kept shooing her away. "No, honey it's too heavy for you!!"
Thirty minutes later after huffing and puffing 3,000 miles uphill she tossed the kid the suitcase. "Take it!" The kid took off like a mountain goat leaving us in her dust.
Java Mama woke every morning to the donkey's braying and the roosters crowing and the voodoo drums and put on her makeup. Foundation. Mascara. Lipstick.
I'm not sure if I even combed my hair the entire time we were there. I did try to clean my face one morning with a Stridex pad only to discover that I had wiped it with a five day deodorant pad instead. Who needs Botox? My face didn't move for a week.
Technically, Java Mama has always been more advanced on the computer than I have. I tried to duplicate some of the things she did years ago and always failed. She started sending me links for interesting blogs over a year ago and I found myself being reeled in while reading them. I think it was the technical challenge that eventually hooked me because I've never been a journaler.
What has surprised me most about blogging and what keeps me motivated is the many interesting and inspirational people I've met since I've begun this journey. Interesting people like the family who on October 1st of this year stopped purchasing food from supermarkets and restaurants. Or the blog of a PHD candidate who left it all behind to become a farmer. I am inspired daily by the poets, photographers, painters, and craftsmen. Encouraged by the re-cyclers. Comforted by the struggles and the triumphs of industrious moms and dad of special needs children.
I've made some wonderful friends.
And just when I think I've seen and enjoyed it all there is a knock on my door Sunday night.
In the middle of a sewing binge (yes, I did get my new machine!) I haven't changed my clothes or combed my hair all day. The Boy flings the door open and yes I've given him the don't ever open the door without mommy speech about 1,00 times to no avail.
Standing in front of me with a huge bag of gifts for the entire Pepper Family (yes, for The Dog and The Cat, too!) is the author of From A Heavenly Land.
Hello! Fortunately, I was too pleasantly stunned to be totally embarrassed by my hideous appearance.
Mrs. Heavenly Land is a brilliant glass artist and The Secret Pepper Person's present feels suspiciously like one of the glass creations I've seen on her blog and is marked FRAGILE. No, I have not peeked and I won't peek. I don't get many surprises at my age!
Woo hoo! I can't wait for Christmas morning. Guess what I'm opening FIRST?
Thank you From A Heavenly Land for such an unexpected surprise.
And thank you Java Mama for starting it all. How about another trip to
10 comments:
You are most welcome. I do hope you like it! Your blog is a gift to me everytime you post. I love reading your stories and am always amazed and inspired. Someday, I would like to meet Java Mama, too!
PS Your hair didn't look at all bad!
Island Rider : HA!
IR is such a sweetheart!
I love you Faith! I forgot about the stones and the suitcase...I am laughing at the memory! "who is throwing stones at us?" a small voice says in the dark as we all wake up....: ) It's the witch doctor who says he studied in Pennsylvania! I still remember the look on your face when you realized the pad wasn't stridex!
If I had the smallest part in your decision to blog then I am thrilled, because you are a writer and your blog touches so many. I, for one, am blessed by it!
You are a hero to me!
Diane
P.S.
Would love to go to Starbuck's with you!
Happy blogaversary, soul sister.
Diane: I remember the witch doctor speaking in a Boston accent to us and in a woman's voice to Debbie. That was one seriously creepy dude.
Elizabeth: Thank you soul sistah. I am fortunate to have found your parallel pathway. You are an inspiration!
Dani: I know, right! And so are you!
If you can't bond after all that...I think you may be RAD :)
HEYyyyyyyy, I think I just found my calling. Do you think there's a market for "you May be RAD if? Would that be too "UN-pc?
Loved the story. Seeing each other at our worst makes us the best friends.
How fabulous! I mean the unexpected presents and the new sewing machine and the sewing binge. And the friends, Java Mama and the Heavenly Land. And the experiences you've given yourself. Your life is complex and difficult but rich and varied. You'll never be bored and when you write the stories down and link everything together into a book, it will be a best-seller because you've got a real voice and real material.
Hope you and the kids have a fabulous Christmas.
D: You crack me up but I had a thought when reading your comment. Perhaps parents in the foster system should be RAD...It would be a lot easier on them if they didn't bond with every foster child who came in to the home wouldn't it?
Kathleen: Honey, you are so talented you make even Texas look good to me and I would have NEVER said that until I began reading your thoughts on life.
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