Lighten up Already

So it was one of those beautiful warm sunny Mexican brag to your friends kind of day.
It had been raining prior. In Vancouver what we would call showers, but here where infrastructure fails, roads are obliterated with minor rainfall. Great for homeschool lessons on erosion.
So off we head towards Ensenada a beautiful postcard ocean drive dotted with cool cactus yet to be collected for my garden.
We hang a right at the River Guadalupe to a winding road through vibrant green vistas of olive trees and vineyards into the valley.
Our plan was to visit Rancho Poiema a discipleship center for for men who have come out of recovery.
Our lack of understanding could not prepare us for the road in.

My heart had been yearning for some of my comforts from home or luxuries that I have not been able to participate in. My garden of prayer at here was reduced to a few pots with cacti that need little care. Long walks where a short hobble to the base and back about 400 steps total..limited exercise to say the least. Long unencumbered chats with friends squelched by the awkwardness of skype. I was feeling very caged in and the bars on the windows and doors began to play with my mind.

Back at the Ranch..cracks me up that I can use that in context....we turn off the comfort of the washed out asphalt and hit the open dirt road.
The first few rough spots we maneuvered with angled skill until we came upon the beast. Large moca chocolata van swallowing demon mud puddles.
Most of them are harmless and shallow. The approach was this. I said take the left, ground yourself on a solid bank and Rob in his confidence decided speed and aggression down the middle was the the best approach. He launched. The puddle engulfed then grabbed and pulled the van into the thick silt, like quicksand on a struggling yak.
We were certainly stuck and no I did not say one word. Not one!
Being that my husband has a very expensive prosthetic and our 2 boys would have relished the opportunity for a mud fight that would inevitably pollute the interior. I roll up my pants take off my shoes and out I go. My fierce arthritic self. The mud was warm and smooth but very dark. I thought not of what might be lurking. Water scorpions I am sure exist.
I pull branches grass and push under the tires with no avail. Finally help comes. Sort of. A beat up Datsun truck with skipping rope intended to pull the yak out.
After witnessing 3 obvious attempts with the rope snapping within dangerous proximity I decide to walk to the ranch after all it is only around the corner.

My hot pink shirt rolled up pants, bare mud covered feet I stomp off intent to resolve this foolishness. So down the dirt road I trek. Within minutes I relaxed with the heavy fragrance of blossoming citrus, the warm soft sand on my feet and azul sky as the back drop to the warmth of the full midday sun. In my person it was the tonic I longed for and I drank it in.
Then comes the band of migrant farm workers on a flat bed driving up along side me looking like something out of a Clint Eastwood movie. I wondered about my ransom and decided to make like I was out for a jog. The funny thing is NOBODY jogs in Mexico or rarely walks either but I thought I could pull it off.
So the stride begins resembling a fast pathetic limp followed by something that was a cross between as seizure and an Ellen dance. I thought I was running. As I turned, they turned, until I realized there was a fence between us and they were heading to the orange grove. Just in case I kept running..sort of. The around the corner was around several corners up a hill down a hill around another few corners up another hill. Looking up to the sky I notice a vulture... for real.. I wonder... as movies scenes flash in my head.
As I come up the hill a large group of gnarly men step down from their construction as one comes toward me. I question my stubborn foolishness.
Just then our van comes around the corner my knight in blue as a comfort and he wasn't mad or even concerned. He has seen that determined look in me before. He was surprised at how far I had traveled.

In the end I had to laugh. I must of look like a crazy lady to these men, all guys working from the discipleship center. They were probably a little nervous themselves as it is not every day you see a 50 year old , mud covered bare foot white woman jogging down dirt roads in Mexico wearing hot pink with a mad look on her face. This new hair do does not do well in the wind..hence the Donald Trump photo.
I also recognized the answered prayer. How the Lord provided for me specific to my person all with a sense of humor . I got out, stretched my legs in the wide open, got grounded with the earth( covered in mud) drank in nature, had time in prayer. Just like a day in my garden. AWESOME! God is so Good.