Together Again, Yet Worlds Apart

Lindale Texas

Together again, yet worlds apart. The life of my long time friend Dawn and I took such very different directions. Her the whole world. Mine, the person next to me.

I met Dawn years ago when hippies and bell bottoms were in, and the Jesus People combed the streets of Southern California. Our common friends brought us together to work in the media department for a large missionary group. Late nights that blended into early mornings were spent publishing the next magazine, or newsletter that had to hit the streets. We worked sided by side with high energy and a common goal. Our enthusiasm for communication, and love of an adventure, started in Calif and took us eventually to to set up an international media department in East Texas.

We shared motherhood with an abandoned demon possessed cat that wandered into our lives at an old beat up gas station in Abilene Texas. Our caravan of huge Ryder trucks carrying all of our printing presses, supplies and personal belongings had stopped there to try and resurrect my old VW beatle. It just couldn't make it any further east, even though it was being towed. The VW was left behind, and Kitty Rat joined our family.

We lived in a rat infested building while we patched the roof and the floors to start a school. It was such hard work, but we didn't care. When it rained outside, it rained inside. The symphony of water dripping into buckets, were only temporary. We were determined to change the world, but first we needed to change our surroundings. We did it with bright colored paints, and the company of many others.

Summertime heat in Texas can be brutal. On one of our work breaks we drove cross country in Dawn's VW to Calif. The car ran just fine, but had no air conditioning, With Kitty Rat, and litter box on the back floor board, we endured the scorching sun until heat exhaustion took over and we started singing theme songs from Disney movies. I never knew the mirages that appeared in the desert could be so funny.

And then a man came by recruiting people to join him in the far east. Dawn went and I stayed. She worked in refuge camps - I in a bookstore. She talked to people in China - I talked to people in East Texas. Her journey took her to Hong Kong where she lived for many years. I settled in North Texas to go to school. She had the world as her family, I married and had two kids.

Then we both crashed.
Dawn crashed on the rocks of Hawaii. My life was falling apart in Texas.
Her busy life took its toll and she needed to rest and restore. I just needed to get out of a bad situation. In both of our lives, in completely different lands, we had reached similar ground. We were both looking up.

Now we are together again, for a short time. Time has passed but not our friendship. We are sharing stories and our lives with the common friends that brought us together 30 years ago. Their three sons, boys that we have seen born and raised, are now gathered with wives and children of their own.

Dawn is still roaming the world. Her life touches thousands. I'm still walking along with one or two. I've always thought my calling was to walk along side one person at a time. She trains leaders of the world. I walk with atheists. We both reflect our father's love. To all the ends of both our worlds.