I just needed that

Visits are the bread and butter of life in the Middle East.  Our lives sometimes require lots of them and sometimes things shift so that we are focused on other things for a time – this is healthy and normal.  Sometimes visits are draining.  This Spring, a couple of visits have filled my heart so full.  A friend recently completing chemo allows me to serve and clean in her home, filling a need for familiarity in such an intensely hospitable culture. In another home, we have candid talks about parenting with a struggling family, seeing efforts to learn and grow.  We walk along wheat fields with Bedouin friends from the hills, sampling wild herbs and chickpeas and relating in our love for all things natural.  A night with women grows long as we craft olive oil soap and balm, stopping for tabouleh.  I needed these things in this season I think…