Four days to go before fly to Sri Lanka! Which is a short time ( unless you are trying to hold your breath, Stephen says) and holding my breath is what I am doing, metaphorically.
I have never travelled on an aeroplane on my own before nor have I ever been to a country with a non western culture so this will be a great learning experience for me.
Fortunately, I am staying with friends: Two lovely sisters; economics graduates who studied at UCL, and their kind parents who have made this visit possible.
However, this trip is more than a holiday. I am hoping to see something of what Thomas Merton saw when he visited the giant statues of the Buddha at Pollunaruwa shortly before his death. This is how he describes the experience in his "Asian Journal":
"Then the silence of the extraordinary faces. The great smiles. Huge and yet subtle. Filled with every possibility, questioning nothing, knowing everything, rejecting nothing......"
He goes on, but maybe it will be later to share more. For now, I prepare to go with those words in mind; open to every possibility, accepting what I find, knowing that love is all and that even discomfort, disaster and pain can lead to love. We'll see!
Please pray for me if you pray or hold me in your thoughts and hearts if you don't, which is the same, anyway.
BAck to ironing, sweing and packing!
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