Leaving Home. Crossing Thresholds.
I sit on a threshold and wait. Yes, there are plane tickets purchased and rooms for the night booked. Still ... it feels like I am stepping into a boat without oars or rudder.
I sit on a threshold and wait. Yes, there are plane tickets purchased and rooms for the night booked. Still ... it feels like I am stepping into a boat without oars or rudder.
Brain fog, like pollution, slows my mind. I am here now. Trying to breathe and remember. Saying a prayer, offering a blessing of thanks and gratitude. I know that we citizens of the world are one, not us or them. I wish my beloved United States could focus on what unites rather than divides. I’ve developed a practice of sending love and light into the places where I know not how to do anything else. Houston with its flooding and hurricane. India with its poverty and pollution. A beggar who I’m hesitant to approach. America and her divided status. Love and light. Both/And. Not us or them, but rather We.
Our lives are enriched by diversity, not isolation… These are words I shared with a friend earlier today as she looked at a handful of photos from my recent trip to India. I can’t get India and Nepal out of my mind. I see the multitude of faces I encountered, hear the sounds of morning call to prayer and honking horns, and smell the aromas of sweet incense and fresh cow dung. I ponder the current fear mongering and terrorist tactics in the world that threaten our free way of life.
It's good to be home and it feels strange. So quiet. No dogs barking or horns honking. Only the sound of Aslan purring and the occasional pouring rain on our metal roof. I feel the pull to watch Hulu or Netflix. I could easily get lost in there while my mind begs to grasp where I've been, where I'm going, and what do I do with it all?
Ten days ago, I returned from a life-changing photo tour to India and Nepal. I’ve been “unpacking” in my journals and wondering where this story begins … or ends. Ha! I’m coming to understand there is no such thing.