My aging mother had lived with me for nearly 8 years and during the past two, had gradually showed signs of physical deterioration, as her skeletal system- mostly her back- developed stress fractures which caused a great deal of pain and limited her ability to be mobile. In the last six month of 2009, much of her time had to be spent in bed to alleviate that unrelenting pain and the tasks and responsibilities of the household- mostly mine anyway- fell totally to me. My life was focused here at home...with caring for Mom's comfort and needs primary.
After a wonderful family Christmas here, a short, month-long period of total decline marked her January, and Mother died on the last day of that month. During the month, I had the help of two lovely and dependable women- Ruth & Rosa, the two Rs- as well as Hospice, which aided so much in controlling Mom's pain. And as all of the many things which follow a death in the family were gradually accomplished, my life began to take on a very different shape...yet I wasn't sure just what that shape would be or how it would look. I just know that it would be very different from that of the past several years.
Enter Mary Martin...enter the Nyanya Project...enter the invitation to travel to East Africa this summer...and the doors of my heart and life were flung open wide! (see http://www.nyanyaproject.com/) And so, for the past couple of months, I have been preparing: updating my passport, getting immunizations, planning what to take and getting what I needed, making list after list, trying to cover all the bases needing to be covered when leaving home for nearly a month... Doing a 5-week body de-tox, losing nearly 15 pounds, and boosting my immune system by good rest and exercise also have occupied my days...and now, only 18 days remain until I board a plane in Charlotte for the first leg of the long, long journey to Boston, where MM and I will meet and board a KLM flight to Amsterdam, another to Nairobi, Kenya.
"Excited" doesn't begin to describe my emotional state these days. "Eager anticipation" comes to mind, as does "wide open"...all of which just means that this journey, this adventure, is the beginning of a new page in a new chapter of my life. And I am ready to spread my wings and FLY!
Everyone is the age of their heart. -Guatemalan Proverb
Why not go out on a limb? Isn't that where the fruit is? -Frank Scully
To find your real capabilities you must push yourself through your comfort zone. -Patrick Lindsay
preparing for the journey...
Empowerment must come from within myself...
as i wrestle with anxiety & fear...
as i deal with my physical body...
as i open myself to all of the possibilities
which lie within me.
The only limitations are the ones i imagine,
the ones i choose to give power...
so...
Joy & Wonder are the companions i choose,
accompanied by Compassion & Curiosity.
Half a world away lie a different horizon,
unknown vistas, mysteries at present foreign
to my eyes & ears...
half a world away live people whose visage
and language will open my eager, searching
mind and heart in ways now only dreamed.
O Creative & Creating God,
grant me the courage to leave expectations
and agendas behind...the wisdom to
understand that only by walking willingly
into the unknown will i continue to become
fully myself...the strength to be flexible,
to bend without breaking, to welcome the
awaiting gifts of the unknown.
Africa awaits...!
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