Change of plans

The whole last year we had been talking of heading back east for the Autumn. We would go back to NY and visit family and maybe do a festival or two. Well since our finances are what they are we couldn’t swallow spending the money on going back. We have been living from festival to festival. Usually it is is barley enough money to buy food and supplies. Inanna does have a website up and running but still no clients as of yet. Thank goodness for Irene who helps out with fuel costs and bus repairs, oil changes and kids needs and more. What a blessing to have her support. I know we couldnt do this without her. We do get rent money from Lisa up in Canada once a month and that helps as well. Seems like we usually have just what we need when we need it! So heading back east seemed too much this year. It was a hard decision, Ivy was really upset. She was hoping to see her cousin Laura and they had been making plans for months. Aura on the other hand is trudging on to the East. She had plans to see her friend Mauve in Boston. We took her to the train station in Essex, Montana and saw her off. She will be gone at least a month visiting family and going to a K-pop concert in Boston. The idea is she will either take a train back to meet us in Arizona or she will ride out with Irene when she comes to visit in November. Were still in Montana for a couple more weeks. We are getting a new solar battery that is being delivered to Missoula and some bus work on the brakes and new front shocks. There is a festival we will try to do here as well in October. Spending lots of time at the public library these days. I have been riding Inanna’s bike around Missoula going to meetings and getting back and forth to the library with Nowa riding on the back. Last week the bike was stolen from out front of the library! I forgot to lock it up and it was gone in a matter of minutes! What a shock. Super upsetting. Inanna loved that bike . It was hard to tell her. Now I need to find a way to replace it for her. I told this at a meeting that day and a guy offered to give me a bike he had. And come to find out there is a cycle shop in Missoula where you can build a bike in exchange for volunteering there. So I accepted the new bike and am going to take it in and see if I can exchange it to build a bike more like Inann’s was…Bicycles are such a tool in this lifestyle. They get us into and around town when the bus is parked somewhere. To the food store, meetings, hardware, library, etc.

So we will keep using them and be more aware of locking them up. I really felt angry at the person who stole the bike. And what I wanted was justice. But after feeling that initial anger and upset I was able to move into forgiveness. Not easy to do right away. And what I’m learning is I cant hold onto resentments. To move forward with spiritual progress I need to forgive those who trespass against me. I prayed for that person.

A week before this happened I pulled the bus into a parking lot to sit while Inanna walked down the street to the grocery store. A man came out of the building on this Sunday morning and asked what we were doing. He said they were having church in the building and we were welcome to come in and worship. I looked at Nowa and Ivy and said “Ok” sure. So the 3 of us walked into a Mennonite church group and sat in the congregation. There were probably 25 people or so. They read from the bible and then we prayed in small groups. After we prayed out loud together we sang some hymns. The service lasted about an hour. Nowa was getting hungry. They asked us to stay for lunch but I declined because of the kids food sensitivities. We shook hands and they thanked us for coming in . We got back to the bus and started to go. A man came running out and stopped us. “Here” he said taking my hand and stuffing a wad of money into it. “Blessings on your journey, we wanted you to have this”. I was floored. I thanked him and we drove away. So our journey is blessed and we have to take the good with the bad and if I can keep the balance we will keep on keepin on.