Good day,
It has been many months, days and hours since my stories of
the run have passed unwritten. Now that
I am home, safely tucked into my bed and living on the internet looking for
work – I will start to record the lessons I learned, stories I heard, things I
saw and food I tasted.
So let me begin with my end, with the moment that proved to
me that my work as a core runner on the Peace and Dignity Journeys 2012 was
done. In the picture displayed you see
four children in a clear blue lake gathered in a tight circle. What these children are doing is combining water
from this whole continent, from this entire world, in this lake. As runners, from the beginning, in
Chickaloon, AK and Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, we collected and prayed over
waters from streams, lakes, rivers, oceans, reservoirs and springs. Along with the collection of these waters, we
collected stories, histories, memories and friendships- some of which I will
retell at a later time. But in this
moment, like many of our creation stories, the children are present and are
doing the work. It is simply a beautiful
sight to see.
But why the end for me?
We still had two days left of closing ceremony at this moment, so why
not then when it was ‘officially’ over?
It was the end for me because I got to see Xalli, my family, my cousin,
my fellow danzante of only 13 years old, participate and handle the water - the
water that represented the world. She,
my Tía Juanita, my Tío Jaime and my other cousin Gavi, were all able to attend
the closing ceremony. Words can’t
explain, how much my heart filled and how much my soul smiled at their presence
– no matter the time I spent on dictionary.com and thesaurus.com searching for
the right words. Seeing her there
solidified my reasons for running and made all the sickness that passed through
me, and all the pain and discomfort my body felt, worth it. Life made a complete circle for me and I knew
that thereafter laid a new one. The work
for PDJ 2012 was then done.
Now to prepare for 2016 ;D
No comments:
Post a Comment