upside down kingdom: down south

there is this thing about deserts. on one hand, it's a place without a life. it's just sun and wind, an incredible emptiness and a stunning silence. a vastness and immensity that makes you rethink things and gives you a new found understanding about the importance of water.

and on the other hand. right there, in the very middle of heat and dust and sun which is about to eat you alive, something new captures you. kind of a feeling of essence of life, something that makes you want to live and breathe and jump and scream. that makes you want to BE and make the best out of the life.
maybe the desert is true not only for Jesus. maybe we all need a desert time to time, a real or an imaginary one, where, stripped out of everything that we hold necessary, essential and needed, we can find some new dimensions and levels of our so called life.

our 7 days in desert, in a small town called Zapala in the Neuqen province of Argentina, have been full of laughing, rest, nature, God, friends, blessings, kindness, late nights, mate, sharing, giving, receiving, walking, sun, castillano (the argentinian spanish) and love. it was so amazing how in the middle of nowehere we found such fullness of life in people and places. we have been loved by people who didnt know us, and we have been loved by God who knows us full well.
it was such a weird feeling - not wanting to leave. i could just stay there - with Jose and Samuel and all their fun friends, and the church, and Gabriella and Roberto... i liked them so much. i felt so much liked by them.

and that made all the difference.

see u later chikos.i have to go and climb a mountain now.