Eureka Springs, Friday Sat Sunday, May 19-21, 2017

The storm shut off the passion play Friday night. My ticket is still good, but after wondering in  the Passion Play area I think I’ll pass.  I went to take photos – and visit the Sacred Art Museum.  A woman in a 1960’s hair-do recited scripture, and pointed out the hidden figures in the artists post 9-11 creation. “Jesus is sewing with his own wounded hands and blood. ..snake to the side to remind us Satan is always ready to get us…faces of evil….bullet holes for the wars that defended this nation …”.  She was so faithful, so immersed in her beliefs that I felt deep sadness for her.  Earlier she’d said something about weather and God and I had commented that I didn’t think She had much to do with weather.  The woman corrected me immediately, and corrected my reference to God as ‘she’.   When I asked if the artist had created anything since last fall’s election, she made it clear that She believes these are biblical not political pieces of art.

She was so amazed that I was traveling alone,  reacting with lots of fear and worry. I told her I did not live in a place of fear and she seemed amazed.

I wandered through a section of copies of some European classic religious art with labels like “inspired by (famous artist) and painted by so and so.”  If there was any bit of human sexuality showing the copier and museum had created an extension of the wrapping cloths in just the right place. I’d seen some of the originals in Europe yet I managed to not laugh out loud.

I walked outside to get the trolley and took a picture of the cross with water pouring out of each arms, grateful it was not  pouring red!

Wondering the springs and the ancient sights of Native and Anglo Americans seeking healing in the various springs, I enjoyed finding dogwood blooming as well as honeysuckle- the smell got my attention. The hills are steep, but have roads and walking paths lined with 56 miles of stonewalls made by stone masons mostly between 1885-1910. This was a healing destination, before medicine and the automobile changed the attractions.

A woman from India in a fair trade store she  owned helped me pick out a new skirt/ pants and top good for tomorrow in church – or contra dancing or staying cool i!n Indiana. I feasted at Local Flavors taking half my dinner and half my bread pudding home for another meal! So grateful for trolley drivers.

New friends I met in New Mexico told me of cemetery next to this campground and I ended the day with a lovey stroll with birds singing and a nice paved walkway. Sunday I went to the First UMC in Eureka whose website love spoke here.org is worth a visit. Thanks to my new Eureka friends meeting me at church to drive me around at “Books in Bloom Festival,” I met author Laurie R. King; I have listened to two Kate Marinelli Mysteries already since I met her!

I ended my Eureka Springs time by getting out the bike for the first time, and peddling on the flat roads for three miles of looping through the cemetery, for 30 minutes.

Feeling lots of gratitude and so well taken care of by—- God? The Universe? —- my ‘tribes’?   It’s a mystery. I am only called to notice, not to explain.