I grew up in a small town nestled in the hills of South East Arizona, a place they said once you went through the tunnel, time slowed down. I grew up in a diverse community where everyone knew everyone going back generations. We spoke fluent spanglish. I grew up in a place where it was safe to leave doors unlocked, children played in the canyons and picked berries in the ditch, and people looked out for their neighbors. We watched Star Wars and ET at the Lyric Theater. We shopped at Moore’s Store, and ate out at the Artic Circle,…
Leap of Faith
My Gran always instilled in me the belief in God, the power of prayer, and the idea of faith. She taught me how to pray, and instilled in me this belief that no matter what I was doing, or where I was in the world, God was watching over me. She would tell me that our deceased family members lived in the Kingdom of God. In my child’s mind, I pictured this big grand castle where my Popo, who passed when I was 7, lived and he would drink Coors and go fishing every day, while pulling weeds, and chewing…