From Portland with Love



Dove before she left Portland ~ 2011

My friend Alli folds her trash. We became friends my senior year in college and while I thought she was pretty cool, I thought the folding trash thing was a bit bizarre. I mean, it’s a burrito wrapper, is folding it into a neat little square after consumption really necessary? “Yes!” Alli emphatically replied, to my face, multiple times. Her handwriting is a bit like her trash; small, neat and precise.

We started writing letters to each other that summer. She went off to work with a church in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada, and I was in Houston, Texas waiting impatiently while God worked out my journey to Portland. Since then, Alli has pursued the stage as an actress, vocalist, puppeteer, and a fairly awesome ukulele player in various cities and states across the United States. Since Alli and I only lived in the same town for one year our friendship is maintained in part through the United States Postal Service and very long voice-mail messages where we trade words, wisdom, wit and an amazing array of green goodness. Our mutual adoration, some might say obsession, for all things green has been a key factor in the longevity of our friendship. As has our LOVE of musicals, music in general, theater, movies, funny, Jesus, etc. We have seen each other through much heartache and happiness over the last nine years and it is true joy when I see a letter or package with Alli’s tiny handwriting on it.

Alli's Wedding in Williamsburg, Va ~ 2008

Alli married a wonderful man named Jeff in December of 2008 but before she did, she and I drove her life from Louisiana to Virginia. It was fitting considering our friendship began during a road trip to a student conference. Neither of us remembers much about that trip nor the conference except for this one statement, “Remember your Jerusalem.” The speaker, a missionary from somewhere (really there is shockingly little that I remember from this weekend), said that Jerusalem represented the moment you knew you heard a word of truth from God, the moment you knew without a doubt what God promised you and that it is truth. I’m not sure what this speaker’s inspiration was but his statement has suck with the two of us and it serves as a bright green double-handled turtle float whenever one of us is floundering in the deep end of life.

When one of us calls the other from a swirling pool of uncertainty and possible crazy over a large life choice or loss of direction the other calmly replies, “Remember your Jerusalem.” Then there’s a pause allowing the one in the pool to realize that her current crazy is the result of some peripheral peskiness attempting to obliterate the promise. And then she breathes and begins to find rest in the promise and the power of the one who made it. It’s a beautiful thing, really, this friendship rooted and established in love and I am so incredibly thankful for it.

Home

A while back during a get-to-know-you exercise someone asked what bird I felt I most identified with. I thought for a moment and replied, “A pigeon, because they have brightly colored hair (mine at the time was green), thrive in the city and always appear to be dancing.” It wasn’t until years later that I learned the head bobbing is actually how they interpret their surroundings. It was then that I also learned that doves are actually a type of pigeon, the type with better public relations. And I learned that pigeons and I have quite a bit more in common than I originally thought. For starters, and perhaps most obvious, we are both rather big breasted. We are quite communal and love to be around others of our species. We are always searching for and can find our ways home because of our extraordinary sense of direction.

My hometown was destroyed in 2005 by Hurricane Rita. Since then I have been searching for a home, like a lost dove. I have been looking for it in so many places – in friendships, relationships, church and in my work. Dad once told a documentarian that home is where his family is. I think that maybe what I am waiting for is a place to feel like home. But I don’t know if I will ever find it here on earth. The book of James says I won’t. However, I think home is found in love and I know that God is love and when we love each other, God’s love is made complete in us. So, I think that sometimes I catch glimpses of home in my relationships with my family and friends.

This blog is the story of some of those glimpses of home. I crafted Dove, a pigeon, with the hope that she will travel from friend to friend to friend ad infinitum gathering the stories of fantastic friendships through her journey. Today I sent her off to her first stop, my friend Alli in Williamsburg, Virginia. Bon Voyage, Le Pigeon!