Journey of a Thousand Miles

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

We didn't only sit around and look at Kai all weekend. We made a short trip to the Museum of Natural History. We saw a mastedon (well, we probably did- Rod and I were looking for one, but never quite figured out what it was), dinosaur skeletons and had some hands-on fun.

The boys have been saving their money for a long time. Kendall and I encouraged them to buy something cool- not just the usual junk. So they pooled their resources and bought this castle. We picked it up in DC, which worked out really well for keeping them entertained while Kai was otherwise occupied. It was just unfathomable to them that Rod and Nathalie really did not have any toys.

Ah yes... And here are a couple photos of Mexico. We hardly took any, but here are two that express the spirit of our trip.

2 comments:

Jodi said...: Did you know Uncle Rich has a mastedon tooth in his office? You betcha... It might even be its molar. You'll have to ask him about it. And the feet picture? It's a good thing I like you, otherwise I'd have to hate you. That doesn't make sense. I just mean I'm jealous. Of your pedicure. :); March 23, 2011 at 8:19 AM
Jen Bontrager said...: Jodi you are so funny! I love the feet picture. Jodi, come up here and I'll give you a pedicure!; March 23, 2011 at 11:07 AM

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"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." Lao-tzu

July 1, 2008
This journey so far has taken me one thousand and four miles from my hometown, but I’m having trouble putting my finger on the single step that began it all. Was it Monday afternoon at the border when they gave me my official document allowing me to pass? Was it Saturday morning when we started the car and drove out of Goshen in our funny little caravan? Was it in February when we came up to Red Lake for a job interview at the hospital? Was it two Christmases ago being up here with Kendall’s family and all of us rating our desire to live up here? (I can’t say my number on a scale of 1 – 100 was high, but it was the highest of all the in-laws, so I guess I’m the chosen one.) Was it three years ago almost to the day that Kendall first said, “What if we’d move up here?” (I tried to ignore that one for several months, thinking surely it would go away.) Or was it June 10, 2000 when I married Kendall and made some solemn promises before God and all these witnesses? Was it a night before Kendall and I were married when we talked about moving to Red Lake? (It was a far off and romantic possibility at that time.) Or was it living in and visiting different cultures at different times in my life? Could the first step have been when my parents brought me as a baby to this same area for a year of voluntary service? (Kendall wasn’t born yet, but I surely saw his parents as they chatted with mine from time to time.) What about when my dad lived on a nearby reserve for two years before he was married? Or when my mom visited this town with her family as a teenager? Or maybe it had something to do with choices my grandparents made? Or other ancestors farther back?

At any rate, moving into this house where I slept for a few weeks as a baby and where my dad stayed as a teenager, has made me very aware of roots. And how they affect our lives and choices and passions.

I suspect there is no single step that began our move a thousand miles away from Indiana. It seems, rather, to be a coming together of so many different factors. (Not the least of which is marrying a man who has taken this land as a very part of his being. And for all the ways I can tease him and get annoyed at some of his woodsman ways, I really do mean that in a reverent and respectful way.)

So here we are, a thousand miles from nowhere. (Oops…I meant a thousand miles from Goshen.) I know that we safely made the journey here, but mostly our journey is just beginning. And mostly I’m excited.

Journey of a Thousand Miles

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

2 comments:

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." Lao-tzu

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