Somewhere Over The Rainbow

Driving home from Lake Bunyonyi was magical ; a true rainbow that seemed to stretch from the heavens, lit up the volcanic mountains and ended (I am sure with a pot of gold) deep within the terraced green fields
I didn’t wish FOR the pot of gold but rather wished ON it….that the land would bear fruit of all kinds, enough to feed the farmers, their families, their neighbors. With enough left over to afford to send their children to school! I wished Big, but then rainbows are a gift from an even bigger God.

.Leaving Lake Bunyonyi is always a bit sad for me, but today more than usual. The sights, the sounds, the being alone in communion with the Creator of it all, are already becoming memories. Although I love my home on the grounds of St. Francis Hospital and have far more comfort and conveniences than ever expected, privacy is not easy to come by. Ugandan think nothing of a 6am visit or staying endlessly when it is apparent that you are running late for an appointment. Their friendliness and generosity are legendary, but the price is I often feel torn between visiting and being where I am supposed to be at that time

So Bushera Island without the “shoulds” and “should – be’s” of my daily life, with its natural beauty, the sounds of children canoeing across the lake, native drumming from a church atop a neighboring island . All that and the melodious chatter of varied birds (Have I told you that “Bunyonyi” actually means “Land of Little Birds”?) .

Speaking of the chatter of birds; I was following one particular little bird, not an especially colorful one (most likely a female-smile); my eyes followed it’s movements from nibbling on a piece of bread I had supplied to sitting atop a brilliant yellow lily and then it hopping off the flower and sauntering over to where I was sitting. First, I thought, to beg for more bread ,but that wasn’t the case. It simply stood next to my chair, looking out at the same tranquil vista that I was enjoying. It stayed with me for several minutes: to give me a message, send greetings from God or just to hang out? Hummm. Yet as she effortlessly flew off into the billowy clouds, I silently said a prayer that she might send my gratitude to our mutual Creator for it all: the weekend of solitude, my continued health to serve the people of Uganda , but mostly for the renewed JOY I felt bubbling within me .
Then, as so often happens in the synchronistic world in which my spirit dwells , I opened a daily reading entitled “Healing After Loss” by Martha Whitmore Hickman, and savored a quote by Terry Tempest Williams---which read:

---------.I pray to the birds because I believe they will carry the messages of my heart upward.
----------I pray to them because I believe in their existence--the way their songs begin and end ----------each day
--------- The invocations and benedictions of Earth.
----------I pray to the birds because they remind me of what I Love more than what I Fear.
----------And at the end of my prayers, they teach me how to listen.