Reflecting on the routines needed when you can’t just hop in a car to see family, separated by an ocean in between.
I know this trip well. I have lost count on how many times I have done this, but enough to have a routine. To know how to get through German customs without too much stress. I know my way to the gate. I know where to fill my water bottle and where to get the best sandwich before the flight. When to put on my compression socks and when to get in line.
I recall specific flights that stand out more than others; the previous time flying back for our daughter’s wedding, the last time flying with our youngest to complete her university orientation, or the time when she and I lucked out with my husband’s business points and were able to sit in business class, side by side, watching movies and eating junk food the whole way across the ocean.
I loved our flights when there were 3 of us, our daughter by the window, me on the aisle, and my husband in the middle. A Daddy sandwich. Excitement was palpable between us, heading back to the U.S. either for the first time after moving or excited to spend time at our place in Door County.
All the others just blur together, enough to form my routine, my habits at the Frankfurt airport…trying to make this as pleasant an experience as possible. It is always a challenge when working through a language “speed bump” and cultural differences. A challenge to manage through any anxieties about flying or sore muscles, stiff necks and tired eyes coming from limited sleep.
Reflecting today as this could be my last flight back to the U.S. before we move back officially in the spring, after nearly 4 years of living abroad in Germany.
I can’t really wrap my mind around this yet as we have been living in such a state of unknowns, undetermined dates, uncertainty of locations. But we knew it was inevitable. This realization brings me right back to gratitude.
I know that this experience, living in Europe, is something that few are able to do. We really have been blessed with this opportunity. But it does come at a cost. Today, I am reflecting on the costs of an ocean in between us and our family. Grateful that I am able to do this, me and my routine, at the Frankfurt Flughafen.
After the holiday whirlwinds, it can be so easy to jump into a new year and not reflect on the blessings of the previous 365 days. Easy to jump into a new day and not be grateful for the gifts in each day. But in reflection and gratitude, peace and joy can be found.
The Christmas decorations are finally all tucked away in their resting places for another year. Our adult children who were all with us for the holidays in Germany are back in the US, back to their lives of work and study. My new calendar has been placed on the wall and already has new notes handwritten on it. It can be easy to turn the page on a new year, a new chapter, and not reflect on the precious experiences of the past 365 days.
For years, before willingly releasing my consciousness to a night of sleep, I would list in my head 3 things that I was grateful for in the day. I wish I was able to write these down every day, but jotting these in a journal nightly has just never worked for me. Listing them in my head helps me to focus on the present, focus on my blessings, whether large or small, and helps send me into slumber with positive thoughts.
This past year, one day I felt God challenging me…”Really? You can only think of 3 things before you go to bed that you are grateful for?” Surely, I could think of at least 10 things before I doze off for the day.
I accepted the challenge and now before I go to sleep, turning the page on another day, I think of 10 things that I am grateful for in the day. God’s blessings are everywhere, and I really do not have a problem thinking of at least 10 things. Even on my worst days, I can find 10 things. If I can think of 10 things, I know my day has been a “10”. This practice has helped me to accept the gift of the day I was given, to put focus and attention on the most special parts of the day, and to guide me into a new day tomorrow.
But tomorrow is never promised. There really is only today. Which brings me back to my reflection on 2024. 2025 is not promised to any of us. But if you are reading this, we all experienced precious 2024 and all its ups and downs. That is very much worthy of pause and reflection.
So, I reapplied my list of 10 things before I go to bed, to reflecting on the past year. How hard would it be to come up with a list? Would it be challenging to narrow it down? I was surprised that my list came to me so easily, in a matter of a minute as I turned back the calendar to the previous year. Each one of these focused on people, as people and relationships make up a strong pillar of my life. (For my family – these are in no particular order as each one is so special).
1 – We were able to spend Christmas and New Year’s with all of our children and their partners. With half of us living on another continent, this truly was a gift as it never had happened before here in Germany. Together, we played board games, laughed, ate, drank, and traveled, just spending time being with each other.
2 – I am so grateful to have been able to spend so much extended time with my family and friends in the US this year, just being with them. A hidden blessing of living so far away is that when you travel over the ocean, you want to stay a while.
3 – My amazing husband surprised me with weekend trips to Bergen, Norway and Naples, Italy as a way for us to see more of Europe and not use his precious vacation time from work. (May we also recommend Lufthansa Surprise Flights, which is how we got to Norway last minute for a cheap deal!). Half of me is Norwegian and setting foot in Norway for the first time was simply a moment I will never forget. Those are my people!
4 – Early in 2024, I had the amazing opportunity to help our future son-in-law propose to our daughter in front of a stunning castle on a golf course. Another moment I will never forget, and we even had sunny blue skies on that February gray day, just at the right moment.
5 – Later in the year, I had the honor of being there in person with our daughter when she shopped (and found) her wedding dress. Milestone moments for sure! Video technology helps us feel connected to others being so far away, but I am grateful that for this moment I was there in person.
6 -This fall, I traveled to Georgia to see where our son was working in an engineering Co-op. As an added bonus, one of my sisters was able to join in the fun. We also traveled to South Carolina to see our uncle (who is a priest) and his church parishes there. I called it “Operation Sun and Son”! A success.
7 – For our youngest, 2024 was a very challenging year. As someone who battles migraines and other medical conditions, dealing with the German medical system here has been extra challenging to say the least. I am so proud of all she has accomplished as a senior in high school, despite all of her medical challenges. But the greatest gift was that she was able to begin a new medicine after turning 18, that has been simply miraculous. I hate to even say how amazing it has been, to not jinx her. But I do give thanks every day for this medicine and for the people who created it. Simply life changing.
8 – Well we bought a house in 2024. That was huge! The house isn’t huge, but if you play Monopoly, you understand the importance of having properties all together. This house is directly behind our small cottage on the water in Wisconsin. We hired an architect and look forward to making this our retirement home someday.
Our future Wisconsin sunrise
9 – I turned 50 in 2024! A big milestone! For 10 years, I had told my friends that I wanted to celebrate my 50th somehow in Europe in a castle. I had no idea that actually would happen. From celebrating the day at a wine tasting in a castle on the 50th parallel here in Germany, to traveling to Ireland and Scotland with our friends from the US, to celebrating in the US at our new home later in the summer, 2024 was year of leaning in on experiences and savoring the moment. These experiences are ones that will grow huge memory dividends in the future — moments that truly last and are what life is about (check out the book “Die with Zero” by Bill Perkins to learn more about memory dividends). We are a huge fan!
10 – Last but not least, this was the year that I realized that I needed to do some planning for our empty nest and put myself out there, leveraging my skills in my current world. I went back to teaching Zumba Fitness. I started an English-speaking faith community. And I even became a demonstrator for Thermomix. (If you don’t know what Thermomix is, just wait until I get back to the US. You will know then).
The next time you lay your head to your pillow, I encourage you to reflect on your day and think of 10 things you are grateful for. It is ok to have repeats! This simple act can help you focus on the present and your many blessings, no matter how challenging the day.
As I have turned this page into the new year, I realize that this coming year is turning the page on so many new chapters. A wedding. A graduation. A possible return to the US. Chapters that are full of treasured characters, plot twists and turns, and a common thread through it all: “God, thank you”.
There was something so different inside of me as we were set to land in Norway. Never before have I been in a country, other than the US, where my ancestors have lived for generations and generations. How could it be that I felt like I was coming home?
I felt something different in my heart and gut as our plane approached the land underneath us. Land that contained snow-capped mountains, steep cliffs, and water inlets spreading across and everywhere in between. This was not going to be like any other prior time landing somewhere on vacation. The sun itself was making a grand debut topping off this wondrous experience of seeing Norway for the first time in my life.
Never did I imagine how awestruck I would be to finally set foot in a country where my great-great-great….grandparents lived. I love to tell people that the left half of me is Norwegian and the right half is Swedish. I am proud to be of 100% Scandinavian descent, which is a bit more rare in the melting pot of the US. It is crazy when I meet people from Sweden or Norway here in Germany and realize…wow, I even look like them. And then, actually being in Norway, I was not prepared to actually feel like I was coming a bit home.
Growing up, we were always reminded of our Scandinavian ancestry when we travelled to visit our grandparents. Because we lived closer to my mother’s parents, about a 5 hour drive away, we were more ‘exposed’ to Swedish customs, such as food and holiday traditions because her great grandparents were all born in Sweden. In fact, they all were born in Sweden in the same area, but their children all subsequently met and married in Minnesota (the immigrant population definitely settled together). My dad’s mother lived much further away, a good 12 hour drive, so visiting her and our family there was more rare, but just as treasured. There we could eat Grandma’s Lefse as Grandma Harriet was Norwegian. It was from her that we learned the precious exclamation, “Uff da”. Handy for many of life’s circumstances.
Lefse, a Norwegian soft flat bread made out of potatoes. Yum!
I remember a framed family tree on our hallway wall when I was young that listed my Swedish ancestors on my mother’s side. I was so intrigued by who those people were as I walked past that tree daily. What were they like? What did they look like? What do I have in me today that ties to them? And what about my dad’s side, from Norway?
When I was little, I begged my grandmother (who was of Swedish descent) to teach me Swedish. This was way before Duolingo, but as a retired school teacher, she was thrilled to pull out her children’s Swedish school books. She taught me to count to 10 and how to say the cow was black. But we were not able to be there for any period long enough for me to pick up the language from her. How wondrous would it be to travel back in time and learn things that we now find more important, to have more of a connection between those generations that have come before us.
Hidden Parts of Me
Photos of several of my great -grandparents from Minnesota
Glimpses of the past
So about 3 years ago, I felt the urge to dive more into my roots and dig into my ancestry. What would I learn? What could I find? I have always enjoyed the show “Finding Your Roots” on PBS, so I wanted to see what I could learn for myself. I found many unexpected things (I will leave that one for a future blog…or maybe book), but the more and more that I searched through the records to connect to my ancestors, the more excited and dedicated I felt to put the pieces of our ancestry puzzle together. I knew names off the top of my head, but in most cases, they were faceless. I have not seen photos of many of them, my relatives from my Norwegian side, but I could tell you when they were born, where they were born and who were their neighbors. In some cases, you can even see what their handwriting looked like by looking at Draft cards from the wars.
Bryggen, the old wharf of Bergen, consists of old wooden buildings that have been rebuilt numerous times with traditional methods (due to fires). Bergen was an important part of the Hanseatic League’s trading empire from the 14th to the mid 16th century and is a UNESCO World Heritage site.
But landing in Norway…that put real places in my line of sight. I could see the mountains, the fjords, the houses that looked so much like those in Minnesota and Wisconsin. I was stunned by how much things looked like the Midwest of the US (aside from the mountains and sea). We landed in Bergen, Norway, which is located about a 12 hour drive south of Trondheim, where my Norwegian ancestors came from. In Bergen, we went on a fjord tour where we saw first hand how isolated the houses and small villages were because of the fjords and mountains. According to National Geographic, the coastline of Norway, one of the longest in the world, would circle the world two and a half times if stretched out. There are few roads connecting these villages- thus the dependance on the sea. I can just imagine how even more isolated the communities must be 12 hours to the north. Those were my ancestors. Leaving their tight-knit community for something different, “America Fever”. Was it out of desire for something better? Desperation? Adventure?
None of us had any input in how we came to be in this world.
But it all made each of us, us.
All I know is a series of events over thousands and thousands of years (and the grace of God) resulted in my DNA being created with my arrival on this earth. I would imagine that in those generations and generations before me, there were many stories of joy and love and many of heartbreak and pain. I am happy to be though in this space. In this time. In this place. And I am happy to learn any connections with those generations to help me better understand me. I am who am I because of the people who came before me.
Opportunities to fill our cup surround us each day from enjoying a clear breath of air, to visiting a place new to us, to spending precious time with family. When we recognize that those opportunities are finite, we can best savor the cup.
I am a renowned “the cup is half full” kind of person. Don’t get me wrong. I can easily slide into a worse case scenario faster than the average non-risk taker. However, in any situation, I can quickly find the bright side. Raining? At least you have an umbrella. Hurt your ankle? At least you don’t need surgery. My husband is more of a realist, and begs at times for me to just wallow with him in his trials for a while. In fact, last week he said to me, “you know at times, your positivity can be annoying’. I love you, too, hon.
I am always looking for the opportunity in any situation to look at it in a different way, a positive light. Being grounded in constant gratitude helps a lot, however, I find that it is easier to be grateful for something when I know that good feeling, amazing experience…won’t last forever.
Our adult son was here with us in Germany over Christmas and knowing that his time was limited with us, we made conscious choices to spend time together each day. Play that new board game. Go explore something new. Take a walk. I feel like we probably spend more quality time with our adult children having them on another continent, because when they are here…we are HERE! We are present and treasuring each moment, because we know that it is not going to last for long.
One of our favorite games is Jackbox. We love to play together…and remotely add in family members who are not with us. Thank God for technology!
For Christmas 2022, I gave my husband a simple greeting card with 30 lines written on it and I titled it “Dreißig (30) Deutsche (German) Dates”. I knew that he wanted nothing tangible for Christmas. He needed ‘no thing’. What he needed though, was time with me, time together as husband and wife. And I recognized that our time as expats in Germany was going to be over before we knew it.
I told him that I was going to take him on 30 Deutsche Dates in the coming year, doing something that we have never done before or ever gone to. He would be surprised with each one. Some might cost money – some might be totally free. But they would make sure that we experienced amazing things that were in our area, and more importantly, ensured that we spent time together as spouses.
All of the 30 Deutsche Dates in 2023 did not fully happen (I think I was somewhere around 25), however, that was one of the best decisions I could have made last year. This opened my eyes to look for opportunities for us to get out in our little world and to do that, together. So for Christmas this year, I gave him another card, where we can record this year’s “Ditto Dates”. A Ditto date in our world might be something totally new (we are in Year 2 of Deutsche Dates)…or it might be a fun date that we did last year and want to do again. I am still going to keep looking for the opportunities that are out there, around me, because I know that clock is ticking. I don’t know how long I will be on this earth, but I do know that as an expat, you don’t live anywhere too long.
Things get clearer when your endpoint is almost visible.
So what is the biggest tourist attraction within 60 minutes of your house? Have you been there? Is there somewhere locally that you have always wanted to see or do? Many people will say that they never see the incredible and unique things that are right under their noses. We think…’life is busy’. It’s expensive. We don’t have time. We get in our regular routines and the thought of doing something that we have never seen or done, never comes to our mind. I can assure you, you can find unique experiences right around the corner, for little to no cost at all.
We still do not know how long we will be living here in Germany. But as I enter a new year and realize how fast this special time here is passing, I am encouraging myself to make this my year of “Embracing Opportunities”. We are beyond blessed to be living here and I give thanks to God each day for this rare opportunity. But if you are reading this, that means you are breathing…and that also means we are each blessed to be HERE. Some opportunities around us are easier to see than others. Keep your eyes and ears open. Talk with others. Make a plan and get out and do it. Embrace your opportunities.
Always darkest before the dawn? We were soon proven otherwise with a brilliance of color spanning the horizon of Uluru.
The morning alarm came way too early for me. “The bus leaves at 5 am tomorrow morning”, we were directed by our CEO (Chief Experience Officer of our G Adventure tour). I find it hard to get super excited at 5 am, but we were headed to go watch the sunrise over Uluru in the red center of Australia. I honestly had no idea what to expect.
We had savored the sunset the evening prior, where with each handful of minutes, the shadows and colors changed over Uluru and across the spanning Australian Outback horizon. But our bus driver promised that this would be even more spectacular. As we drove, we could just barely make out hints of pink and yellow on the vast horizon. This was going to be special.
The land that we were travelling on is Aboriginal land, now Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. The traditional owners of the land, Anangu (Yankunytjatjara and Pitjantjatjara people), have been joint managing their land with the Federal Government (Parks Australia) since 1985 when the title deed to Uluru-Kata Tjuta land trust was handed back to them. Land that has been theirs since the beginning of time, where their ancestors have lived for over 30,000 years. We were being welcomed here today to look around and to learn: to understand Anangu, to respect their knowledge, and to open our minds and hearts to appreciate their enduring culture.
We had learned about Tjukurpa (pronounced ‘chook-orr-pa’), the foundation of their culture and why Uluru-Kata Tjuta is such a sacred place for Anangu. Tjukurpa is more than just our western views of laws and culture. Beyond being the traditional law that guides Anangu, Tjukurpa refers to the creation period when ancestral beings created the world. Tjukurpa provides answers to important questions, how to live and care for one another.
“Tjukurpa refers to the past, the present, and the future, at the same time. This knowledge never changes, it always stays the same”.
– Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park Visitor Guide
As we exited the bus, small white lights lit up a visible short path, headed into blackness. We followed each other, one by one in our group until we came upon a rainbow of light sprinkled off in the distance. Field of Light.
Artist Bruce Munro was inspired by a trip to Uluru in 1992 to create Field of Light, a collection of 50,000 interconnected, solar recyclable lights that now span over 7 football fields, like a sprawling garden of desert flowers in the darkness.
We were encouraged to take our time, slowly walking through Field of Light, and to absorb. As in a labyrinth, we meandered at our pace along the paths, not really sure where any path would take us. Each path was dark, lit up only by small white lights on the side, bordered by the brilliance of ever-changing reds, greens, and violets.
As I wandered and reflected, I could feel that each viewing of Field of Light was unique, as each light changed second by second. In contrast, Uluru, having been here for hundreds of millions of years, stood quiet and resilient somewhere in the distance. As we traveled the paths, we could see more and more, glorious pinks and purples on the horizon, a sign of the sun’s arrival. But little by little, the 50,000 solar lights, were starting to lose their energy and brilliance. They would be dim soon until the blazing Australian sun would charge their cells once again.
I felt that connection that artist Bruno Munro wanted us to experience: a connection to something bigger than our lives. Just like those lights, our lives exude brilliance for a time and then, dim and fade. While shining bright, we are intertwined, making something even more spectacular together than one single light. However, generations of light will come and go, all just a minute in the span of the time of Uluru.
To photograph or to just be? My constant struggle with how to experience amazing wonders around me.
Overlooking Doubtful Sound in New Zealand
Our overnight boat cruise of 58 passengers in Fjordlands National Park was setting sail out of the glacially-formed, remote Doubtful Sound in New Zealand, into the Tasman Sea. To get here, we had taken a 45 minute cruise in a catamaran across Lake Manapouri, followed by a 45 minute bus ride over the steepest commercial road in New Zealand, through dense rainforests across Wilmot Pass. We were nowhere close to anyone.
“Wow, we only get a few days out of the season when we can go this far into the sea”, our captain said, as we soaked in the ocean breeze, staring over the water becoming illuminated with the setting sun. “Someone here must have done something good for this”. The Fjordlands National Park is one of the wettest places on earth getting 7 meters of rain a year, with over 200 rain-days a year. All we had that February day was bright blue sky.
Our luck was continuing as the naturalist on board alerted us of seals ahead bathing on surrounding rocks. Everyone rushed to the boat, mobile phones in hand to capture any bit of video or photos of this wonder: seeing seals in their natural habitat.
I could already feel that tension of whether or not to take a photo or just soak it in.
I love to tell stories, so it is hard for me to just sit and soak it in. I want to share this wonder with my family and friends who are not able to be sitting with me and also to better savor it again in the future with a visual reminder.
Not long after we saw the seals, we learned that Bottlenose dolphins were nearby. What luck! At first they were out in the distance, where we saw just small glimpses of grey, sleek bodies poking out of the water causing a splash.
Slowly we saw more and more splashes, not sure if the dolphins had told their friends about their requested evening performance or if we just finally learned what to look for. It was not long before we saw 10 to 20 splashes getting closer and closer to our boat. They were coming right for us.
Soon we had several dolphins traveling parallel with the boat and their friends. They were so playful, rising up and swimming down, speeding through the currents. You could sense their passion as they streamed through the water, up and down. We were in their home, and they were thrilled to give us a warm welcome show.
Again, I quickly felt that tension. Take a picture. Take a video. How can I get that captured on film? Should I just sit and admire? I could sense that I was not alone in this dilemma, as phones went up and down, trying to balance between both. Capturing this for others, for the future or recording this just for us, right here and now in our own memories. “Just sit and watch”, I could hear one of our friends advise. So I sat and just embraced the moment of watching these playful dolphins, living carefree in their sea haven.
The following morning, our boat traveled up into the quiet Hall Arm of the sound, for a ‘moment of silence’. As we pulled up facing the carpeted green fjord, the fjord’s mirror image flipped onto the still water, the captain said he was going to turn off the engine and the generator. He asked us to sit down and not move for 10 minutes. He wanted us to soak all this beauty in, in silence.
“Put your phones down. I promise you after 10 minutes, the scenery here is still going to look just as breathtaking”, our captain directed. How thankful I was that I was given no option. I zipped up my pocket after stowing my phone.
“Look through your own lens”, he advised.
As the engines sounds sputtered to silence, I surveyed the scene before me and then closed my eyes. As if an orchestra, on cue, I could hear there were waterfalls. I had not noticed them before we stopped. Next, cued the birds. I could hear a distance bird call to my left. One to the center. Then another unique one to the right as the conductor announced their entrances. A whole orchestra was at our feet, just waiting to be heard once we turned down our noise.
After our ten minutes of meditation, the engines slowly started up and the boat slowly took up speed. The orchestra of nature was now covered up again as we sailed away.
As I reflected on that experience in Doubtful Sound, I could only come back to the world ‘balance’. Is it crucial that we turn off the noise in our life so we can hear the music around us? Absolutely. Is there value in sharing pictures of life wonders with those who are not able to be there? Absolutely. Is there value to create visuals to enhance your future recall of incredible life experiences? Absolutely. It is a balance. If one pulls you too far in the other direction, your scale will tip. It is a balance.
‘What is my Story?’, I thought as I reflected on our day learning about the Māori people, the first to arrive on the green and peaceful islands, that the world now calls New Zealand.
She had my attention the minute she opened her mouth to speak, with her eyebrows raised, joy radiating from her smile. She was here to share her family’s story. The story of her ancestors.
With our 12 day National Geographic G Adventure Tour, we explored and embraced New Zealand and her people through multiple cultural experiences earlier this year. Ena, our Māori guide on a beautiful summer day in February, drew me in with each word as she shared the Story that has been passed down generation after generation of her ancestors.
New Zealand was uninhabited by people until around 1000 years ago. There were just birds upon birds and a few species of bats. The first people arrived 300 or 400 years before the Great Migration from Hawaikii (around the 1600s) when Toi Kai ra Kau brought a group of 50 people out to sea, to explore and ultimately share information with their homeland. But he never came back, leaving these people to embrace their new life on the island, that they call Aotearoa.
As Ena passionately shared this story with us, she showed us the rock carvings that visually told their story. These carvings have been dated to 1050 AD and are not art, she says. They tell the story of her ancestors. Carvings of canoes. Long canoes. Their story of grief. Of life.
Fast forward hundreds of years. In the 1900’s, the Maori economy was booming as they had the largest planted forest in the southern hemisphere where pine trees grew twice as fast due to the volcanic soil. However in the 1960’s, the government wrongfully sold their land and trees to overseas control. Then in the 1980’s, mechanized forestry caused huge unemployment and their economy crashed, leaving them to face some pretty hard realities such as gangs, drugs, and high levels of suicide rates and abuse. Murupara was not the place you wanted to be.
“But that is changing. Change is always possible”.
-Ena
Ena stated these words with pride, as she toured us around her hometown.
We pulled up in our bus to the Kohutapu Lodge, where Nadine and her family welcomed us with smiles and open arms to their home. They had been preparing since early morning a traditional Māori lunch called a Hangi, where food is cooked for hours in the ground.
Our welcome as we sat down at our table
After lunch, Nadine invited us to gather around to hear more of their Story. We learned about Haka and soaked in the Māori Haka as Ena expressively shared that with us. Nadine and her husband gave up everything 9 years ago when they felt called to make a change in their community through tourism. Through the leftover Hangi meals, as buses upon buses came through to their lodge, they were able to feed over 30,000 meals to children in their community. But Covid brought them to their knees. How could they continue to make change in their community, with no tourists?
They needed to adapt. With government financial support, they developed programs to support local youth, which resulted in an 86% success rate. They now provide full academic scholarships to students, for their learning abroad and for students to come to them to learn about Māori people. Nadine shared with tears in her eyes that their family tourism experience won the top tourism award in New Zealand and the award for community engagement. Little by little, change was happening and we as tourists, played a part in making that change.
Our day with Ena came to a close when we went to go on a walk through the bush, their sacred forest. Before we walked in the forest, she said a beautiful Mihi (acknowledgement) in Māori, asking for permission for us to enter Her forest. We promised to not take or hurt anything. We were just there to look and then we would leave, leaving Her forest and inhabitants unharmed.
Walking through the forest was an experience like no other. The Forest, she inhaled and exhaled as we walked through. You could feel Her harmony. Her sacredness. To Her we gave Her our respect.
Ena, Nadine, and their family had shared with us their Story. Their collective Story. Their Story that has been told for over a thousand years.
One of our tour participants reflected how different this is compared to North American white culture. We do not know the stories of our ancestors from 1000 years ago. I barely know the stories of my grandparents. Such a loss in our culture.
My 20 kg speed bump that forced me to align on what is important and is helping free me for embraces to come.
Today begins an amazing adventure. An adventure that is behind my wildest dreams. When I have tried to wrap my mind around all that is to come, I come up blank.
I am leaving today to meet my college roommate (from almost 30 years ago) in New Zealand where we are set to explore the amazing wonders of life “down under”. I know I am blessed beyond belief to be able to do this. I have felt guilty. I have felt that I should not have this opportunity when my family is staying here. I have felt like a month is too long to be gone from my family.
Until I hit this 20 kg speed bump. Then my focus was diverted elsewhere. Twenty kilograms. That is the weight limit that our checked bags need to be for domestic travel in Australia. From someone who prides herself on being the mom that has exactly what you need when you need it, 20 kg for a month is not a lot. This has consumed my brain the last week.
This 20 kg limit has stretched me. It has challenged me to really prioritize what I need for the coming weeks. I know I don’t have everything I want. I don’t even have everything that I probably will need.
But I have this opportunity. This time. These world wonders to embrace. Time with my dear friend and time with precious people I have even yet to meet.
If my luggage limit would have been 23 kg, I would have stressed about meeting that limit, and I would have then been burdened with lugging around that many more extra unnecessary items.
Here is to embracing wonders down under, a little lighter for the journey.
Lighter so I can have room to soak in and embrace all that is to come.
Embracing Second Half Wonders 