Away we go…

Making time for reflection is crucial for a healthy life. It has been important for me anyway, to stop, remember recent happenings and consider their effects. This doesn’t have to be anything special. What I mean is, there is no special place or theatrics needed. Just a pocket of unhurried time and your own Self.

For years I have called my times of personal reflection: pondering the path of my feet. I find it restorative to clear my mind of clutter, to focus my attention on what’s important, to assign limits to what things I allow in and to purposefully yield to ways I must change. It is a process of quieting oneself, praying and ordering one’s internal life. Over the years I’ve noticed these times of personal reflection get longer. I wonder if that has to do with age.

Last night as I mulled through the stillness of the night I found myself near tears–positively overwhelmed with gratitude for this opportunity to travel and work. I am nothing special, nobody special from nowhere particularly special. Nothing special about me or my family or my credentials, and yet this beautiful opportunity for me and my little family is so… real.

Several months ago when I went to request permission from the President of my college to work for a semester abroad, I was certain the answer would be no. I’ve never been so glad to have been so wrong. The days have been long and each process has my stomach eating away at its own lining (ulcer?). At every point I ask my husband “Are we crazy? What are we even doing? Is this real?… This can’t be real.”

But it is real and it is my life. And it is so beautiful. I sincerely hope this will be a wonderfully enriching time. And I am so thankful.

Today we finally fly. ✈

💚