What am I carrying!

I have taken time to think about what I will carry that I really really need and I have looked for what I want to carry for my soul journey. I also carry the prayers of people who are important to me. I carry with me the good wishes of my family and friends, the concerns of people who worry that I am travelling on my own, the excitement of people who have done this, wish they could do this or are thinking of doing this themselves. I carry the excitement of my little grandson who looked at me in wonder when I said I would be going on a very long trip and walking for 30 days. I carry my own pain and the pain of others who too have suffered or anticipate the loss that I have experienced. I take with me an assortment of things - rose quartz from South Africa symbolizing universal love, small stones from Killarney Park where Chris and I loved to canoe, a piece of coral from Jamaica, a stone from my wonderful counsellor Patricia that aligns with my mission on this journey, a poem from my wonderful cousin in Cape Town - Meike and a quote from my coach Penny. I carry the concern of my Dad who worries that I will be forever lost in the wilds of Spain, the love of my Mom who is as excited as I about this journey - she mostly feeling glad to see me so happy once again. I carry with me a special treasure from Cathy and most of all I carry from Susan, some sand in a small glass vial from an artistic project that has been blessed by the Dali Lama himself.
How lucky I am to have the good fortune to carry both the grief and the love of people around me - knowing that the contemplation and the opportunity for reflection that I have along my way will be a gift to me and to them. I am blessed with the time for social isolation and for leaping into the unknown and the daunting. I am blessed with the wonder of daring to do something quite out of the ordinary for me and for what people might expect of me. I am really just blessed - to be able to do this at all - don't you think! M

"When one leaves certain social situations and moves into temporary loneliness and then finds jewels, everything changes" Joseph Campbell