Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Journeys

I can tell the time is nearing for our return trip  home. We have been a little under the weather and I am missing being with you and  sitting in front of our fireplace. I also have found  myself singing the same song under my breath that I did right before we left. It's funny that it would be that song…I hadn't thought of it in years and now I think of it everyday. It was one my mothers favorite songs and for whatever reason it has been the song I sing in my moments of quiet. It is Glen Campbell's  "Gentle on my Mind". I know I have a version of songs that can be a little different than most peoples' but I like the version I have been playing in my mind.

It's just knowing that your door is always open

And your path is free to walk

That keeps you in the back roads

By the rivers of my memory

And for hours you are ever gentle on my mind...

Tears of joy may stain my face

And the summer sun might burn me till I'm blind

I pretend to told you to my breast and find

That your waiting from the back roads

By the rivers of my memory

Ever smiling ever gentle on my mind...


I have thought of my mother a lot during this trip. My mother would have been happy for me I am sure. She would have listened to my endless stories with utter fascination. While she was not a traveler herself, I think she harbored a secret fascination for it. She was a gentle woman, very brave, and  really quite a lovely person. She would always say someday she would do the things she had saved up on her list of things to do. She would be pleased and proud I think to know that I had lived a life of doing the things that were on my list. That I had not waited too long for those somedays and that I was courageous and brave in pursuing even the hard journeys in my life. She who knew my beginnings and she who saw me through to the other side of those journeys would be happy for me today. I know she would have worried about some of the places we have been but down deep she would have been excited for me. She was always one of my biggest fans.

There are so many things I learn when we travel. There is something about our sabbaticals that  are a time of great reflection for me and often inspires growth.  Something about being in all those railway stations, bus depots, airports, and  boat docks remind me that at any given moment we are at a pivotal point for  life altering changes. Sometime we choose the change; sometimes the change chooses us. We have been gone for several weeks and soon we will begin the process home. We have had the adventures of our lives. We have gone places that are identified as wonders of the world, seen things we had only read about before, and met people that we will cherish forever. We have had so much fun together and we have learned so many things. Mostly about ourselves. That change is alright. That often times we seek the comfort of what we know and that change gives us the courage to try and learn something new. In fact, we have embraced the unexpected and unknown while on our sabbatical. We are now ready to return.

And, while we know that change is coming we also have the familiar to come home too…you. You, who are the rivers of my memories who are always gentle on my mind are what I am longing for now. We are  never the same as when we left but what you mean to us has never changed. Thank you that your door is always open and your path is free to walk.



We start the process home at the end of this week. It may take awhile but we continue to pray for exquisite favor with our connections. We will fly to Malaysia and then take the train into Singapore. From there we begin the Space A adventure homeward bound. And so, I will pretend to hold you to my breast and find, that your waiting from the back roads, by the rivers of my memory, ever smiling ever gentle on my mind...

See you in a few weeks...



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