roots?

It's a hard thing; this having roots in two communities. (Lancaster and Oberlin) And of course, within these two communities, there are many smaller ones. It's interesting to be in Lancaster again...I like it. So that's good, but I'm not so sure where I fit here now, because I haven't been around much the past two years; I'm here now, but I won't be for long! I'm also worried about entering a new community in Guatemala. If I'm having trouble adjusting to having roots in two communities, what will happen when I have a third one?!

I guess I'm confused about how I'm supposed to be fully present where I am...in one place, while also retaining some sort of meaningful connection to the other people and places I care about. Do I have to let things go? If so, which things? I can't just keep going through life adding more communities (to keep in touch with) to the ones I've already spent time with, can I? That would be exhausting! But it feels daunting as well to pick a place to stay for a decade or two or three....Because that would mean choosing. Committing to one place over another, and focusing on life there. Maybe at this point in my life it feels limiting, but later it will feel okay.

This post started as a paragraph in an e-mail to Steve, but then got expanded as I thought about it more. I was reminiscing this morning with a couple of church friends about things that happened at church like 10 or 12 years ago (I can't believe I'm old enough to talk about something that was over 10 years ago!) so I was thinking about how my two homes feel very much like different worlds, even though there are many similarities between them!

-Beth