I need hope. I'm homesick and I haven't even left for life on the road, yet. I look around my empty, too quiet barnyard and I miss the clucking hens, the screeching guineas, the baaing goats. I count how many Sunday Masses I have left to play for and I wonder where I will play my music when I'm on the road. How can I breath if I cannot play my flute somewhere?
Judy likes to give out bracelets. In her younger years she had a hand in everything that went on in our little mission church. She was a powerful force in organizing dinners, fund raisers and raffles. Recently she has had to slow down quite a bit. Now she blesses us with her bracelets. One year it was angels. The next, St. Faustina. Then the Sacred Heart and Blessed Mother. Lately it has been blingy crosses. The bracelets are special, because they come from Judy, but also because they are given to us at church. When we wear them, we remember our connection. To each other, to St. Anne's, to the Holy Catholic Church begun by Jesus himself, to Judy.
Last Sunday I counted 5 of us wearing our blingy crosses. I went home and discovered another one hiding in the bottom of my suitcase. Such a small thing. Such a big comfort. When I wear Judy's bracelets, I feel connected. My heart is lighter, because I have a church family, even if I will be absent for awhile. Most of all I have hope. Hope that I will connect with more of my Catholic family as I travel. Hope that I will find other musicians to play with. Hope that, whatever God's plan for me, I will recognize it and participate joyfully.
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