Bloggerlife.blog

09/13/2025

Today’s blog

Lynn Murphy Mark

Road trip approaching

It’s getting to be that time of year. Autumn approaches, although the Summer heat is lingering. After all, it is Missouri. The sunlight’s quality is changing from bright hot to a slightly subdued yellow. Leaves are starting to fall. 

My 76^th birthday is coming up next weekend and, thanks to Jan’s generous agreement, I will celebrate it in Santa Fe. I will start my day by having breakfast with my friend, Denise. She is the Social Worker at the middle school where I spent the last 5 years of my long nursing career. We worked really hard together to address the many problems that our kids experienced. It is a school on the “poor” side of Santa Fe, 98% Hispanic, with unknown numbers of undocumented children/parents. We dealt with social challenges that students brought with them on a daily basis. 

I love Denise because she is so devoted to her craft, using her skills and resources to make a difference in kids’ lives. It is not easy work. Middle School kids are their own special challenge with all the changes their bodies and souls are going through. Add troubled environments and circumstances that no kid should have to endure and the job is even more complex. But through all of the hard work we found plenty of time to laugh at the every day ironies that came our way. Denise made it clear from my beginning that she knew she was always welcome in the nurse’s office – unless there were bodily fluids present. She drew the line at that.

My visit will include meetings with so many dear friends. I’ll spend part of a day in Albuquerque with Tylka and Cynthia. Their contribution to God’s world is to serve as a hummingbird rescue site in their living room. At one point this Summer, they had 100 tiny creatures in their care. Imagine feeding that many little beaks every 15 – 20 minutes, and caring for the severely injured ones until they are able to hover for at least 5 seconds. This is a sign that the birds are close to being ready for release. Fortunately, someone with a clever imagination rigged up little feeding stations around the big cages. Still, many had to be hand fed. Fortunately, hummingbirds lapse into a kind of coma at night, so the caregivers could get some sleep themselves.

Sheila and I will go on a 3 night retreat in El Rito, north of Santa Fe. This is a traditional part of the trip where we each bring a project to work on, uninterrupted for 3 days. Well, except when we interrupt each other by offering some deep thought or something funny that we can bounce off each other. Sheila is working on a book. I will be putting together some training sessions to use at my church. We are starting a prayer ministry at Parkway UCC and I have introduced a method of praying called, “Affirmative Prayer”. Pastor and I will recruit people who are willing to pray out loud with congregants both before and after church service. 

Back to El Rito. It was one of the first Spanish settlements in New Mexico -which is neither New nor Mexico – established around 1807. That’s as much history as I know about it. But I can elaborate on a restaurant that gets a great review from my friend Katie, who used to live and work around there. In fact, she is jealous that we’ll be eating at this family-run establishment that serves good New Mexican cooking. (Throughout my travels I am likely to remember restaurants rather than other touristy attractions.)

The Sunday before I leave on Monday, a Santa Fe tribe will gather for a rollicking game of Mexican train dominos. These women are such close friends that whenever one of them is down and out for whatever reason, there is an immediate chain of support set up. I am blessed to have been included in their midst when I lived there and to be welcomed “home” when I visit. 

This coming Thursday, I’ll get in 2WUNDA and start the onerous drive through Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas to make Amarillo by early evening. The next day is a 6 hour drive to Sheila and Barrett’s beautiful home. If history repeats itself, there will be a pot of green chile stew bubbling away. Life is good.