Home

Friends, I am home.

I apologize for the delay in relaying the message, but I had good reason. Krista and I decided three weeks before we left, for a number of reasons, to forego backpacking through western India and instead fly home early and surprise our family. We were so excited! We changed our plane tickets and contacted my brother Peter, who agreed to pick us up at the airport. We said our goodbyes and avoided mentioning anything of our departure in our emails- my last entry was written the morning that we left.

I had been very sick for a week before we boarded the plane with what I thought was a serious case of food poisoning but the excitement of coming home had kicked my weak body into high gear and gave me the adrenaline I needed to get through the beast of a trip back to Tennessee. By the time we reached Nashville Krista and I had not slept in well over 24 hours and we didn't care! We made our appearance at my good friend Tyler Jame's show where Peter was playing and we surprised not only my family but all of our friends. I was overwhelmed by being home and surrounded by all the people I loved and had missed so much.

The next two days were spent with my parents, who had come into town to see Pete perform- I felt relieved but was losing energy and my symptoms had not lessened. By Sunday evening, I plummeted. I became severely dehydrated and over the next few hours was unable to tolerate even water. My friend Kerry was with me and I am so thankful. Had circumstances differed only slightly I would have needed to be taken to the ER.

Krista took me to the Infectious Disease clinic at Vanderbilt the next morning and they began running lab tests. I am unclear about what happened, except that they gave me an iv and a liter of fluid. I know first hand that Krista is a wonderful nurse, she stayed by my side for five hours. I don't remember coming home or the two days that followed, but there were flowers in my room and friends who came to visit, and my sister. My sister Emily played nursemaid and my sweet boyfriend Mark stayed close by. My Mom came back in town. I slept. I was given a heavy dosage of antibiotics and within a week I was back on my feet. My body is weak, as though I woke up from a coma-which isn't, I guess, so far from the truth!

What a miraculous turn of events that I came home when I did! I can imagine what could have happened  had I been traveling through Rajasthan when I became so sick. I am increasingly more thankful for the people in my life and the overwhelming abundance I have been born into. My life is blessed. Beyond what, even after this experience, I can comprehend.

Having seen sorrow, I know I have never tasted it. Having met despair, I know I have never held it's hand. Having witnessed poverty, I know I have never slept in it. Having touched disease, I know I have never worn it. I look at my healthy body, at the wealth of our country, I notice the safety of the walls of my house, the clean air and water, I look at the faces of my friends and family, and my complaints die on my lips. What do I have to add but "Thank you!" ? What do I have to offer but gratitude? What do I cling to but humility?

I thank each of you for coming with me, for participating in this process. No one has a community of friends like mine. Your prayers were my arrows.

All my love,

Ev


P.s......I may write again. We will see what adventures the future will bring! I leave you now with one of my favorite quotes which has become my prayer :


"I believe like a child that suffering will be healed and made up for, that all the humiliating absurdity of human contradictions will vanish like a pitiful mirage, like the despicable fabrication of the impotent and infinitely small Euclidean mind of man, that in the world's finale, at the moment of eternal harmony, something so precious will come to pass that it will suffice for all hearts, for the comforting of all resentments, for the atonement of all the crimes of humanity, for all the blood that they've shed; that it will make it not only possible to forgive, but to justify all that has happened."
                                                                                                
                                                                                             (Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov)