Sunday

I haven't forgotten you... just living in the land of a massive African head cold. I promise you - if I have to blow my nose one more time... the only thing left in there is my brain, and that might actually come out considering how mushy my head is from a week of being all slogged up. More than you needed to know I am certain.... just that i am a baby and like sympathy.

Y'all know Sundays at our house. You know you are always invited, right? We believe that Sundays are a day to breathe deeply. To let your mind and body unravel from the week of work and responsibilities and fill up with rest and strength to begin another week's worth of energy.

For years now, we have adopted a spirit of Sabbath - a day set aside to soak in life, whatever that looks like. In Michigan it often looks like Mexican food after church with friends.

Here in South Africa it looks like an open house.

We started out with just our family. And it was a beautiful time to reengage with each other (and with ourselves) after a week of perpetually giving outward. Then one friend joined our family each weekend, and another... until lately, we taxi two or three trips back and forth from church and I'm cooking pasta for 20+. The only rule is that whatever you do brings you life - and that you wash your own dishes because it's my Sunday too and cleaning isn't high on the list of life-giving activities for me. There's card games and dancing and swimming. People check email and facebook and lately the movie that gathers everyone together is another episode from the first season of Glee. This last week we introduced an open canvas for painting.

It's messy. It's chaotic. It costs us something. But each week, a different kid comes out of the crowd and joins me on the porch, or back doing dishes, and tells me about his life - his family, his dreams, the obstacles he is proud to have overcome. Every week Billy seems to rouse up these intensely meaningful conversations around the table. Every week the kids laugh and play and just enjoy - and we see a little more into the spirit of who they are. Every week Billy taxis all the kids home and I make a cup of tea and sit in the quiet, glad that we have chosen this path... that it has chosen us.

In the chaos and mess and creativity and laughter and noise and conversations and questions and depth and gallons of pasta sauce is a space where life seems to be at it's fullest.