for the awesome wasems.

One day I walked imagining
What work I might do here,
The place, once dark, made clear
By work and thought, my managing,
The world thus made more dear.
I walked and dreamed, the sun in clouds,
Dreamer and day at odds.

The world in its great mystery
Was hidden by my dream.
Today I make no claim;
I dream of what is here, the tree
Beside the falling stream,
The stone, the light upon the stone;
And day and dream are one.
-Wendell Berry, Sabbath Poems-1989 (VIII)

Thanks to the Awesome Wasems (Jane and Tim), I have this beautiful poem with me in Kenya- and how glad I was to come upon it in my reading today. It expresses very well something of how I've been feeling about my work since I've been here- the need I've felt for dreams I had before coming to be brought into alignment with what the place in its actuality requires, needs, and demands. The two are not necessarily at odds, but I feel strongly these days both the newness and unfamiliarity of what I have come to be a part of, and a lingering uncertainty, both of myself and of how I will fit here.

But this poem fills me with the hope that if I am patient and attentive, in time the place, in all its mystery and intricacy, will open itself to me and reveal to me my belonging, how I fit- and not only how I can best serve and help, but also how I can be changed, stretched, and grown. I have always loved Berry's emphasis on the truth that we must be molded by our place, instead of vice versa- now I find myself very much challenged by the idea- both excited and scared for the ways in which I'll be formed by this place.

God is teaching me so much already here- about being assertive, imaginative, and confident- both in the abilities He's given me, and in the strength He provides when we are unequal to the task. The Kenyan workers at MOHI are such a model of this, and they assume and expect it of me and the other American workers. It's terrifying to me, but also freeing and exhilarating. My prayer is that God gives me the vision to see what needs done, and the strength to do what I can do, until, as Berry says, "day and dream are one".

PS- pictures to come soon, I promise.