The back porch

Our back porch is a place where great conversations seem to always happen. Where, over a cigarette, cup of tea, or a beer, we can just talk about the stuff that really matters in life...

Tonight I am by myself...

It's April and spring is here. But today winter wanted to hold on a bit longer. Tonight it is quiet and a little chilly so I made a cup of tea, with masala. No sirens. Every few minutes I hear a car go by or somebody drop a trash bag into a dumpster and the clink of a discarded glass bottle. I have been thinking a lot about friends that are far away.

There is turmoil.

Yesterday a young girl dressed up to look pregnant, walked into a crowed place and detonated a bomb. Many were killed. An agreement was broken and now many more may die. There has already been undescribed suffering. Families have been ripped apart by men and water. 4 hours away a family is serving tea in cups that have pictures of roses on them, it is very sweet, with milk and a little ginger. There are little plastic containers filled with silver and stones open on the table.

Elsewhere, there are people out in the streets pregnant with hope that there will now be change, after almost 3 weeks of defiant action against one man. Maybe now people can buy vegetables, and go to work. Soon, black marks on the pavement where tires were burned will be worn off by life going back to normal, but the memories of 13 will not. Little boys can now go and get a haircut.

I still believe that God is sovereign and that he uses suffering to bring people to himself, but it doesn't mean it is easy.