downright extraordinary

I never did climb that little mountain, but now I am soaring above them. I bit my lips during takeoff. As Phoenix sank below me I wished I didn’t have to leave.

From seat 16E, the seat I took in order to get out of the airport 1/2 hour earlier, I can see the snow on the taller mountains.
When I get home there will be a couple/few inches of snow. I hope I have time to go sledding before I need to return to Trinity.

The sun is already set. If we were still camping, we would be pulling supper together and gobbling it down. Or maybe we’d be washing dishes. Or maybe just sitting around the campfire talking about smoking, and first dates, and what we had seen today.

Today in the airport, while waiting in standby, I saw a Jewish family with three little boys as they also waited to get a seat on the plane. All with some sort of head covering.

The middle boy was counting airplanes (He counted almost forty that took of while we waited.) and his dad was telling him about airplanes. While their dad was busy taking a business call, the youngest brother, still wearing a pacifier, told the middle boy that he wasn’t allowed to count planes and that it was dumb.

So the middle brother went over and smacked the little brother. This was just as their dad came back. “But he said I wasn’t allowed to count planes!” was the boys excuse. They were both reprimanded.

Then the dad asked the middle brother, “Why did God make hands?”

“I don’t know,” middle brother whimpered.

“God made hands for helping, not for hurting,” his dad said gently.

If only everything was used for what God made it for. If words were used to build up, if land was used to be beautiful and to supply us with what we need. If work was for being productive, not for making money. If long flights were used for getting to know the person next to you instead of listening to music.

Just kidding. I’m just bored and a bit jealous. And I want more orange juice. My glass was half ice.

The turbulence is pretty crazy fun. Even while flying at a reduced altitude. It’s all black outside, but when we fly over a city, I can tell we are unusually close.

I hope that whoever comes to pick me up brings food. And I will use my sleeping bag to snuggle up in the cold of Illinois.

We went to the botanical gardens today. I loved it! Cacti of all shapes and sizes, and succulents that were even more bizarre. I wandered around dreamily taking in the beautiful weather and the green of the desert. (The desert fed with a drip irrigation system.)

Hensley said that, to keep a cactus alive, you should watch the weather, and if it rains in Phoenix, water you cactus. The man knows so much about the desert. He knows most of the flora and fauna, plus all the cool stuff about how they interact. How pack rats build nest out of teddy bear cholla. How birds can build their nests within the spikes of a cacti. How coyotes communicate across the desert. How saguaros kill off their nurse trees.

. . .

My pots and pans had to be packed with Rogers stuff, because they wouldn’t fit with mine. It is a good thing I didn’t fit them into my roller. It would have been overweight.

. . .

When I get home, I am going to take a long shower and qtip my ears.

. . .

Before I left, I didn’t have very many ideas for my parents to get me for my birthday. But now I can think of a few: a light to wear on my head, a thermarest and a camelback. And an ultra-warm mummy sleeping bag, except for that the one I have is quite new and I’m not planning on camping in thirty degree weather again anytime soon.

Funny how living (and even thriving) with less can still make me want more.

But this week has also proved that we humans don’t need lap tops to learn, and we don’t need houses to have heat. We don’t need a kitchen to cook, we don’t need computers to communicate. We don’t need to rest to relax and we don’t need a TV screen to see the world. I even discovered that I don’t need a camera to capture memories.

But we need people. I wouldn’t have survived this week without people.

I needed the moms, Sara and Amy, to have food ready when my aching muscles needed it. I needed Renae to share body heat with at night. I needed Aaron to give me water from his camelbak and I needed Michelle to go get my towel when I was naked and shivering in the shower.

I needed Derek’s advice and the smoke-free spot by the fire that Mike could have taken for himself. I needed Jason’s chipperness and Chris’s determination. I needed Josh to let me know it was okay to go sleep in the van.

I needed Hensley’s knowledge and Vander Weele’s coordination and Roger’s motivation (and the extra room in his luggage.) The people made this trip not only possible, but pleasant, productive, and downright extraordinary.