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With Medeus (our patient with a stroke) and his wife in Haiti
It's certainly been a whirlwind of a month. Tomorrow I will have left Haiti three weeks ago. I continue to miss it everyday and think about the experience and people often. Being there for a month made me realize how short one month really is in the grand scheme of things. It made me desire to do something more long term. I know that the timing in my life, I have a job I need to return to and financially I cannot leave that right now, but my hope is that maybe in the next couple of years, I can figure something out so I can live in a different country for a longer period of time... long enough to learn the culture well and learn the language a little more.. and really build some great relationships. |
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| Holding my new nephew, Blake Murray Heilicser for the first time |
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| My first friends in Denver |
Since returning from Haiti, my little nephew was born on 8/9/10! He is so precious and has brought such joy to my family. It was incredible to hold him, and amazing to think about the miracle of life. I flew to Chicago from Haiti to be with my family and meet my little nephew. I was feeling emotions of sadness for leaving Haiti and happiness of being with my family and meeting my new nephew. And then I had to return to Denver so I could start my job up again. So again, I was feeling emotions of sadness for leaving Haiti, and now leaving my nephew.. but also happy to have met him and happy to have had the experience of Haiti.. and now happy to be back in Denver. This past weekend really helped feel good about being back in Denver. The weather was beautiful. I even escaped to the mountains on Saturday to go to a friends wedding. I rode my bike all over town. We had friends over and had a BBQ. I went to a friends house for a BBQ. I had brunch and great conversation with a friend. I went for a run with no humidity. I drank good coffee and even better beer. I felt the summer breeze. All of these are such simple pleasures, but are very much reasons why Denver feels good right now. It is home.. for now. I have been in Colorado for 5 years, Denver for 3 years. I have had many roommates and lived in many houses... and I'm preparing to move yet again. It will be my 8th place of residence in 5 years... and I hate to move. But I also love having roommates and experiencing new neighborhoods. So this is more change in my life. One roommate is getting married, and it looks like we may gain 2 more roommates and live in a 5 bedroom house. It should be fun, but it's another place to have to settle into and another place that it will take awhile to feel like home. Home has been an interesting concept. I have had the desire to really settle down and live in a place for awhile in the last year. However, I cannot figure out where I want that place to be. I'm not quite ready to own a home.. or make a decision of where i want to settle down.. who knows if I'll ever be ready. But I do see the advantage of it. I see how communities of people are formed when people stay in a place and invest in the people around them. So to me home is not a house or a place at all.. Home is actually act of being around people that mutually know each other and love each other well. That's a hard concept for us 20-something, non-committal, transient, adventure seeking types.
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| A group of my middle school students seeing School House Rock - The musical, last April |
I've been back to work now for a week. Today was the first day I got to interact with some of my students. It was so refreshing. I love being reminded of why I do my job and I why I love what I do. It's about those kids. They bring such joy to my heart. I'm excited to reconnect with them. I have so much to be thankful for. Counting my blessings!
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