It begins again...

December 28, 2009

Two years have past since I last took a journey across the world to explore a new culture, facing the unknown and the expansiveness of it all. I told myself I would never lose the centeredness and perspective I felt coming home from such a rich and profound experience in Ukraine. It taught me to truly think before speaking, being ok with the silence between the words and in conversation, to be ok with the aloneness and all the ugliness around me in some of the most shady living conditions..To see beauty in everything around me and to feel peaceful inside even when everything around me was at times falling apart. I became quite aware of cultural dissonance, this space in between two realities of two cultures, pulling me from one side to the other. Me, wanting to articulate the profundity and depth of what had just happened, feeling disconnected from "home." Yet at the same time, longing for the warmth of my own bed, a hot shower, and comfort food..the safety of my own land. Now....I am going back out into the world, a world citizen, ready to experience this dissonance again, but this time, with much more open eyes and an open heart. With the understanding that we are all doing what we can with what we have, and envisioning that something magical is about to happen....something mystical, life-changing, transformative, and unique is going to bless me. Perhaps some day I will no longer see so much of what separates us but what truly brings us together as people. The dissonance will still be present, but its meaning will be different.

It is 12:20am, and Im still doing. I had forgotten the butterflies that come with something so big such as this. Packing for long trips never does get easier I guess....trying to figure out how to pack all the shoes I want and staying under the weight limit;) It is all unfolding perfectly...as I close this notebook , I remind myself of this:

"Deep peace of the running wave to you; Deep peace of the flowing air to you; Deep peace of the quiet earth to you; Deep peace, deep peace."- Donovan