enveloped

i look back and keep thinking, what the what just happened? what did god just do?

march. midterm week was insane but then all of the sudden katie was there, standing outside my gelman library. katie with her red hair and her non-nonsense packing and her beautifully abundant spirit. we took in dc by way of art museums. hirshorn and national gallery and portrait gallery. nap rooms and hanging rubber strands and escalators through mirrors and word art and portraits and staring up at a curved class ceiling. along side a best friend. and then emily was coming up from the metro and she was here, really and truly in my city. we all went to dinner--the dc best friends and home ones and i could not have been any happier. lincoln after midnight is just as magical as ever, and i am so grateful i got to share its secrets with my two sweet tourists.
then, urban plunge. hannah and i were off into the city alone together, looking for h street and asking for lots of help. we talked with a woman about mom's age about her experiences with segregation, played the dc lottery with some precious war vets in a run-down grocery store, played improv on the piano with a young teacher with a nose ring and enveloping spirit. we slept in the basement and shared our bread with homeless men like Noble. we prayed over Destany, London, and Tye as they held a curly-headed baby boy and smoked marijuana. we prayed over Amma and she shook and cried and i don't know if it was the alcohol or the spirit but god was at work. i talked to the kindest woman i've ever met--a nun, a friend of mother teresa's and i helped a first-grade teacher at orr elementary and tutored a 20 year old high-school drop out through the essay part of his GED class. we were prayed and prohpsesied over at washington house of prayer and i was filled with joy and healing just watching god at work around and in me. he healed paul's knee and our hearts and i want to never doubt again. we wrestled with racism and differences and inequality and justice and immigration and community living and giving up everything and expereinced a black caltholic church and candle-lighting and speaking in tongues and countless other ideas we disagreed with or had never thought about before. new friends, new hope, new despair, new understanding, new love, more jesus, more prayer, more inspiration, less sleep, less doubt, and less fear.
and now i'm home and i realizie that that week which is now almost over may be one of the sweetest gift god has ever given. a whole week with emmy jane and dear katie and it is all topped off by my almost entire family meeting here at home, all together again. i am absolutely enveloped by all this love. i am so incredibly joyful in my gratefulness.