My Sky

In a land where power outages are frequent, I am thankful for star-filled skies:

they're a nice place to direct attention that would be focused on frustration otherwise.

I Was Sent Here

Thinking tonight about a thousand little ways different friends helped me go when I wanted to move to Honduras.

Storing my belongings in their attic, lending me a truck for my hauling needs, giving me the grace to bust up the gang and head south of the border, and other kindnesses.

I don't know how I could have done it without all these gifts and the beautiful people who delivered them.

Little-Bitty World

Years ago in undergrad, a radiant human from Spain taught me how to dance salsa.

I lost touch with her after leaving Tuscaloosa,
there was never any sign of her on facebook or Google,
and all I could do was wonder about what ever happened to her.

The answer came earlier today on a random street in small town Honduras where she ran right smack into me.

The world just keeps getting smaller.

Andy Again

1. I freakin' love Andy Stanley.
2. He meddles in my business sometimes.
3. I needed this phrase from him so I can preach it to myself repeatedly:

"Every woman I see is made in the image of God,
her God is Heavenly Father,
and the same Jesus that died for me died for her."

Dedicated To My First Foreign Language Teacher

Here's to Mademoiselle Zumudio, my 5th grade French teacher:

I haven't seen or heard of her since I left grade school, but I've realized that there are times when her excited, animated language instruction informs the moves I make with language learners I teach today.

I have also realized that the day Mademoiselle Zumudio announced that she was soon to become "Madame Dabbs" was, in fact, the worst day of elementary school. The memory still stings a little!

For Better And Worse

No clue if I'll ever live there again after Honduras, but one thing is for sure:

Nashville is changing in ways I never expected.

It's changing for the worse and also for the better.

Worse - some of my favorite people are leaving town to live elsewhere.

Better - I have a growing collection of friends who have decided to move to Tennessee and give Nashville a try. Folks in this category include a few Americans I met in Copan...people who spent a few years in Honduras and then happened to settle on Music City for their next stop.

Return

Here's to another successful collaboration between American Airlines and me -- round two of me landing in Honduras to stay for a while.

As soon as I saw it, I took a liking to this painting by one of my teenagers. It is beautiful.
I was caught off guard by the skill of my student.
And maybe the solitary man in a boat sky-gazing subconsciously reminded me of me.

Last time I touched down here for July in Copan, there was so much that felt foreign. So much to figure out...accept...learn to live with. I had a lot of adapting to do twelve months ago when I arrived. But today, the simple life in this small town somehow makes more sense than life back home in the U.S.

I'm not sure how I'll feel if the time comes to adapt back!