It Fills the Air Around Us

Rice overflowing

Bread torn and laid all around

Tea fills cups and hearts

Home is nearer than we know

It fills the air around us

The poem (tanka) above highlights a scene from this past month.  We enjoyed a local meal from Central Asia right here in Kansas City.  Though it was prepared by a Westerner, it had the aroma of the mountains, rivers and hospitality of a land far away.  It carried in itself the image and feelings of something so familiar.  It was impressively tasty.  The meal was also enjoyed with a cup of tea.  Tea has been a major theme for us in Kansas City, just as it has been in Central Asia.  Friendships are home to us.  Whether in Kansas City or Central Asia, hot drinks are where friendships are built.

The rice dish is called "osh."

  

Answering Christmas

Many people have kindly asked how our Christmas was.  As we've tried to explain, it's become clear there is no simple way to express the complexity that Christmas was for us.  The deep pain and great joy are hard to express in one conversation.  But poetry does something that conversation can not.  It meets polarity of emotion and weds them.  Below is our attempt at answering Christmas, followed by pictures  (As with all poetry there are always layers.  Reading slowly and several times will help those layers to be understood).

One life was absent   

Together we come

Brokenness did overwhelm

In hope we’re looking ahead

Silence crushed us down

Laughter fills our hearts

Isolation broke

Ornaments surround

The loneliness abounded

Meaningful depth unfolding

We sat in the pit

Love words are planted

By the grave we came

Beautiful flowers

Tears ran down our cheeks unwiped

The sun brightly shining down

Emptiness ran deep

Rock in my pocket

Death was remembered

Great joy in feasting

Each moment came full of fear

The bread and cup abounding

Sorrow broke us down

The Sacrament lives!

Joanna's homemade bread! "The bread...abounding"

Frozen Yogurt

We hiked in a blizzard... and loved it!

Josiah's so big! (and so is Dan)

"Together we come"

"Together we come"

"By the grave we came...beautiful flowers"

"Great joy in feasting...the Sacrament lives!"

"Ornaments surround... love words are planted"

First time ever:  bros and wives together

"In hope we're looking ahead"

Amazing hosts!