The Never Ending Cycle
Here I sit, alone in my house, and listen to the sounds of afternoon fading into evening. The parrot screeches from its roost down the street and the smaller birds fuss like so many parents scolding their children to go to bed. The bright colors of day soften into the hazy hues of twilight. Clouds swathe the hills like a down comforter pulled over knobby heads, and everything drips with the remnants of the late afternoon rain. It is a cacophony of peace, a clamor of stillness, with which this valley so expertly surrounds its brood daily. The last couple of months have been a season of goodbyes. Many of the group that came at the same time as me have left for furlough or have finished their commitment to working here. The high school seniors I’ve come to know through helping with plays or mentoring them at the clinic have graduated and have gone back to their passport countries to start college or university. The constant cycle of time and the ebb and flow of change continu...