Thirty-eight hours after waking up on Monday morning, I went to sleep on Monday night. Time travel is a wild thing. Miraculously, I’ve stayed awake during the daylight hours in Portland this week. I’m scheduling this post while hanging out in an unexpected lull before my delayed red-eye to Chicago. Here’s hoping I’m busy with the launch of orientation for TeachBeyond when this goes live online.
I’ve been busy this week catching up with loved ones and eating cajun tots. Plus I went to Powell’s. I won’t take for granted how loved I am in this city not only because ADA requires accessible parking and toilets everywhere but because Karin set up a snack and coffee table for me in her guest room and borrowed an extra wheelchair to keep upstairs so I could navigate more easily and so many friends went out of their way to pick me up and drive me out to eat my favourite foods (or just wander Powell’s).
Honestly, the people who made time for me last minute because of my crazy planning and switch up of travel plans is really beautiful. I thought I’d have a whole week here in July, but I ended up with just over four days on the ground in Portland before heading to the next big thing. When Jen picked me up, it was a sweltering but clear day, and I snapped a picture to send to my New Zealand prayer team letting them know that I landed and saw my mountain.
I grew up seeing it along TV Highway, but you get the gist. I didn’t grow up with the concept of “my mountain,” but it resonates deeply whenever I look east while visiting my hometown. That mountain is unchanging despite the new apartments built up all over the place, the changing stores in malls, and the added height on the trees lining the familiar streets of my youth. But even more stable is the security I feel hanging out with Karin and her family, the joy of being filter free with the Baxes, the overwhelming sense of home just talking to the Obandos. These are some of the people who know me most deeply, and I treasure every moment of these visits.
My life is filled with rich gifts and opportunities to live overseas and visit people around the country who I met around the world, but sometimes it’s fun to play twenty questions with the kids I babysat nearly twenty years ago. I won’t take that for granted.
