Sparkles and some Snarkles

Yesterday on a bus, I felt a sensation on my leg. My mind immediately guessed that a baby had peed on my lap. (I've become very familiar with that as babies here only often have a thin cloth diaper, if any at all). It dawned on me though as I looked down, that there were no babies near me; it was only a spot of sunshine. I don't remember sunshine spots in North Dakota (or in Virginia, Kansas, or Pennsylvania for that matter) ever being quite so intense that the second it hits your leg it feels as warm as baby pee. I might be wrong though. I do remember however, that in -40 degrees Farenheit, my nostril hairs freeze immediately and sort of pull and prick the insides of my nose. I remember how there were three eternal areas on the four minute walk to my school where there were no trees and the wind flogged your cheeks and nose with a million tiny swords of unrelenting justice. I remember excruciating snow is on your wrists, especially when it gets packed on the inside of your big fat mitten. And I remember how the fresh layer of frost on the windows sparkled like diamonds...sort of like the diamond on my finger...

The ring Jospeh gave to me the night he asked me to marry him, on the same veranda...

In twenty-four days, I'm going back to nostril-freezing cold, leaving behind the pee-warmth sunlight spots. I feel a very balanced mixture of emotions about that: pleasure to be able to be with my parents as my mom goes through chemotherapy to battle the cancer they found in her body, fear for what that means for her future, sadness at leaving behind my friends and work here, apprehension in when I'll be able to see Joseph again, anticipation of real honest-to-goodness ice cream, angst that I'll not know how to use those self-checkout counters at Walmart, and so forth. Ah, but this is joy. Truly, with the peace of Christ in my heart, this is joy.

My mom and my niece Lexi