cabalgada, a Spanish word, means: cavalcade, procession; parade of horsemen. 

If you’d like to see what that actually looks like, I’ve posted photos from Marty’s 50th Birthday Cabalgada.

I’m not sure we got an exact count (feel free to try from the picture at the right) but there were something in the range of 50+ horses and riders, of varying ability, who all went for a walk on the beach in honor of Marty’s birthday.

Thanks to Marty, Jose and Vita, I had the opportunity to go horseback riding on the beach today…I’m still not a ‘run through the waves’ horseback rider, but getting better!

(photo by Marty)

Happy Easter from Mexico!

Just wanted to give a quick update…I’m back in the country, well, on the continent. I got back late Thursday night, spent Friday unpacking, doing laundry and re-packing in order to drive down to Mexico on Saturday.

You may remember (though I don’t blame you if you don’t—I can barely keep track of my life, and it’s mine!) that last Easter I told a story of meeting Gary Wilburn, a retired Presbyterian minister, who is living here in La Mision where my family has had a house since my grandparents built it some 50 years ago.  Gary and I have both mutual friends, we came to find out, but have also quite mutual paths—Princeton Seminary, St. Andrews Scotland, Bel Air Presbyterian Church and Immanuel Presbyterian Church in LA, to name a few. Gary and his wife Bev moved down here to Mexico full time after finding out that he had ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

Gary and I met last year on Palm Sunday, and a week later, on Easter, hosted a La Mision Easter celebration service and pot luck.  In December we hosted a Christmas celebration as well, for a mixed group of Spanish and English speakers, Mexicans and Americans, all part of the community here.

At one point not long after we met last year—I think we were at Tuesday Taco Night at La Fonda Restaurant, Gary looked at me and said, “You could have been Lutheran!” to which I replied, “You could have been Pentecostal!” Meaning…of all the situations, how crazy is it that he, a retired Presbyterian minister and me, a…hmm, not sure what to call myself!, would both end up being here in a fairly small community.

That’s all the back story.

Gary preaches to the La Mision Easter service

The update is, I had the great privilege to again, this morning, help put together and host an Easter service for the community here. Gary, with the help of a small microphone which helps him speak (his breathing has become very difficult and he spends much time on oxygen and is pretty much always in a wheel chair now) was able to preach.  Other members of the community helped with readings, prayers, reflections and a benediction. We sang to Cat Stevens’ “Morning Has Broken” and Judy Collins’ “Amazing Grace” and even had an impromptu round of “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands.” I’ve heard plenty of sermons in my day, and now even preached quite a few, and I’ll tell you, I don’t think I’ve ever experienced such attentiveness to a sermon as I did this morning.

Here’s just one excerpt from the sermon, entitled ‘Outrageous Hope’ : “I’ve got to tell you—time is not on my side, but hope is…Having hope doesn’t change anything—it makes us want to change it.”

I recently had the opportunity to write an article about Gary for the Presbyterian News Service.  It’s entitled Lots of Hope, which is the title to Gary’s newly released book.  You can also see pictures from the service as well. 

Peace to you this Easter.

I’m not sure if you can get more self-promoting than sending out a group email to Happy Birthday yourself, but there it is!

I happen to be spending my 37th Birthday (which I think is the official entrance into ‘late 30’s’ a category I’m not thrilled about. 36 can definitely still be mid-thirties, but 37 has tipped the scales toward 40) in San Jose at the Presbyterian General Assembly (GA). I think that makes up for any jealousy other travel experiences in my life might incur! The good thing about spending my birthday at GA is that at least I don’t feel old…I’ve still got at least a couple of decades before I approach the average age in the Presbyterian church!

I’m here as a freelance reporter for The Presbyterian Outlook  and mainly following the work of the Peacemaking and International Issues Committee which is dealing with the war in Iraq as well as the Israeli/Palestinian situation. So, as committees go, it’s actually a pretty interesting one to be a part of (of which to be a part) and at least with the Israeli/Palestinian topic, one in which I’ve got some personal exposure as well.

On Sunday I went to a lunch where one of the speakers told a story in which the punch line was basically “Don’t keep asking if we’re there yet—we’re nomads, for crying out loud!” I think I may have to appropriate that for my own life…I keep wondering when I will be ‘there yet’ and keep realizing that, at least for now, this random nomadic life seems to actually be what I am ‘called’ to. I know that people say that life is more about the journey than the destination, but somehow I keep thinking that if I could only find the destination, then I’d be set.  “We’re nomads, for crying out loud!”

In other news, I’ve posted new pictures from a recent trip to Europe that I took to surprise my mom for Mother’s Day. She was in Amsterdam, I just showed up at the hotel—thankfully, she was glad! (and also thankfully Continental had a frequent flier ticket available with a two week notice.)

I also have pictures from the recent Photopiece class that I taught in La Mision, Mexico. Over the course of six weekends I taught photography (along with Marty Harriman, whose parents were friends with my grandma in Mexico as well as my parents) to a small group of local teenage girls.  As the culmination of the class we exhibited the work at the annual Memorial Day Fiesta in La Mision. Their work can be seen here and is really quite phenomenal. I have really been enjoying teaching photopiece in LA, Ecuador and now Mexico. I’ve got an offer to teach it at a deaf school in Gaza, but for the moment that seems a bit difficult to pull off. It’s really an amazing way to help teenagers gain a sense of their own dignity and that they have a view of the world that is worth sharing, if they can learn how to communicate it visually. The work from the Ecuador Photopiece class was just exhibited at Princeton Seminary and it was really amazing to see how it impacted those who saw it.

It’s late and I have a long day of committee meeting sitting tomorrow, so I hope this finds you well and that the summer will allow for some rest, relaxation, or vacation!