Gallows, Ferris Wheels, and Kiwi Sorbet

Today was one of the best dates I've ever went on! It was shopping at Sams' and Wal-Mart like usual (3 1/2 flatbed carts of food...

) but then I decided to see more than the grocery stores in Fort Smith, Arkansas. That was when my adventures really started. Robert and John were senior citizen volunteers

on the trolley

and were thrilled to tell me all about Belle Starr and Judge Parker - a female outlaw and a judge with a hanging fetish; apparently he once hung

79 people at once. That was sobering - I've only hear of hanging from the book of Esther where Haaman - ironically - is hung on the gallows he prepared for Mordecai. These hanging stories sounded nothing like that though. Anyhow, I hopped off the train and rushed - barefoot over the dusty Arkansas sun-heated path - to the meeting of the two rivers; one being the Arkansas River. I clambered down sheets of shale rock and reached giant boulders on the edge of the river, after dipping my foot in I seriously considered just swimming across to Oklahoma (on the other side of the river only!) but the water looked incredibly dirty, and I had no idea what the currents were like. (Good thing I didn't, as 2 Arkansas natives told me later).

After walking through the woodsy area of the park I came back out to civilization - I had seen the ferris wheel

start to make its rounds through the city sky. I went over, expecting some ridiculous fee; nope, only $1 for the most fantastic ferris

wheel ride ever! Mike, a guy who worked at the amusement park, chatted with me for a quite a while and told me about a cave in his hometown and the stalactites in Devil's Den park... thinking it sounds like an adventure for next weekend! I've never been in a cave before ;( I walked around and just enjoyed nature, views of not-so-faraway mountains, wide rivers, and historic buildings everywhere.

Driving home I stopped at The Immaculate Conception Church

(gigantic and a feat of design!) Totally walked in on a wedding practice (what, I heard beautiful organ music, what could you expect?!) Moving on down the road almost drove past this teensy-weensy little shop called "Delicias" I had to stop in - the sign read "100% natural homemade ice-cream". If that isn't tempting you must be lactose intolerant! In any case, I settled on Kiwi Sorbet - I asked the man scooping what brand the ice-cream was. "We get the fruit, cream, and mix it all up ourselves." The sign was for-real and it was the best sorbet I've ever, ever had!!

I like life, especially when it involves a lot of time with God and random strangers, whose lives I can pour into for a few moments.

Arkansas Skies

Arkansas skies, with birds that fly and bats that swoop
so much, like stars and tears, fall from this sky
a blanket over poverty

unseeing eyes looking down;
seeing abuse
spotting lonely
watching houses blown away
like the day I picked it up-
a little girl's summer dress
-blown into neighboring trees
before the wind finger the hem
dancing innocently around her ankles

Arkansas skies, I still ask why
and how, when and where
will we become the people we're called to be?

So many sights have been seen here,
so many memories will be left in this state
memories that have no place to stay in my mind
and many of these memories still very fine
though fine doesn't cancel out the pain
-the pain of the hurting I have seen.
On the inside more hurt than the outside seems.

The Heifer Ranch

These are some of the animals that Heifer International sends overseas (and to some needy places in the USA too - it seems Appalachia area is just as desperate as some foreign countries are for food and education). Not only is Heifer Intntl a sustainable organization (which is a huge thing for me) but they also value education - they're not just going to drop off a water buffalo in Cambodia - they're going to educate the farmer about how to care for it (the ones at the ranch were over 20 years old!!) and they are a peace- loving organization: something I'm feeling called to more and more lately.

Views

A view from my lovely Arkansas Mountains!