(written Thursday, June 26th)

Greetings from the road.... we've had a busy and sad and happy last couple of days. We had to leave Lucy in Indianapolis. We buried her in a community garden that is well tended and loved. The people who we stayed with and who take care of the garden placed a tree stump where she was buried, painted it and laid down flowers in her memory. They told us they recited the Franciscan blessing of animals over her. I'm so thankful that she was remembered in that way.



We're working through the void that she has left. We miss her and are glad that she's no longer afraid of anything. I don't know my thoughts on heaven and I know everyone says that animals aren't invited but I secretly hope she's floating on clouds, running through wildflower fields and licking many bowls of vanilla ice cream (she liked that).

yesterday we made our way to cincinnati which was a great stop. we really enjoyed the people there and the boys all did a good job. i want to visit the city again when we have some time, it had a good vibe.

We had to leave our friend Emmanuel there, which was sad. he was a great help so far on the tour and I really liked getting to know him. speaking of great people I love our documentary crew. most of them are the ones who helped with looking for lucy, they have helped with anything they could and are just fun to be around. we've got a good group with us.



so far i haven't gotten tired of meeting people and answering the same questions over and over again. it's kind of nice, actually, how most people want to talk about the content of the book, not the communities.

we've already had a little trouble with folks being uncomfortable with some of the content in the presentation but we're trying to push and challenge people a bit. i'd really like to see the church not be so quick to shelter it's people from controversy. how can we be one when we're too polite to be honest?
we'll see how it goes.