Chicago O’Hare

Chicago O’Hare International Airport.  It’s Sunday, June 30 at 11:19 pm, and my connecting flight doesn’t leave until Monday, July 1 at 3:00 am.  For some reason I thought it left at 1:00 am.  But, sure enough, I check the itinerary, and it says 3:05 am.  On the way back it will be 1:00 am.  Good enough.  Since arriving in Chicago, I’ve had a fabulous Greek salad, and some Godiva chocolate (dark chocolate covered almonds and dark chocolate with raspberries).  Yummy.  Thank you, Tracy, for helping me get online here in the airport.  I also want to express my gratitude for all the support I feel, from the grace, ease, and magic I’ve felt pretty much every step of the way, to the people who have been there to share their ideas, their listening, and their enthusiasm and faith with me, to the people who have so generously hosted and fed me since I turned my Bluff Dale house over to its new inhabitants, Chris, Ashley, Sophie, Oliver, and Louis.  And my daughters, who continue to offer their love and support, through this crazy, cockamamie transition I’m going through.  I feel so much love, and so much appreciation for you all.  I know that I am not alone, and that is so valuable to me.

I’ll get to Guatemala City at 6:25 am, in time to catch a bus to Quetzaltenango, where my language school is.  That will be a 4-hour ride.  What I am most excited about is meeting my host family and my teacher, and beginning the hard work of language acquisition.  It also occurred to me that, for years, I have been asking for a work situation that funds my travel.  I wonder if I am moving into a phase of my career where that will be the case.  If so, then I won’t need to figure out how to earn the money to cover airfare.  Now I’m imagining a conversation with a friend in Bangladesh who is a professor at University of Dhaka, who is keen on me coming to Dhaka to provide supervision for therapists who are learning to practice EMDR.  How cool would it be if I could provide supervision and/or therapy to clinicians in Dhaka.  Three months of the year in Dhaka sounds ideal to me.  That would give me a chance to connect with and support up-and-coming therapists, and reconnect with old friends, and explore that country in a way I was not able to when I lived there before.

I’ll also be checking out healing centers in Guatemala, which is a neighbor to El Salvador, toward which I’ve felt an affinity for years.   I am envisioning meeting exactly the people I need to meet to make such an exchange possible: organizations that have the resources to transport and house an international staff member/consultant, and a need for the skills and expertise I have.  Thirdly, my sister, Tracy, who lives in Guadalajara, has been mentioning friends there in Mexico who are involved in developing a healing center in her general neighborhood.  These friends seem to have a unique set of offerings uncannily aligned with mine.  Who knows what is in store for me?  I am open.  I am willing.  I feel your prayers and your support.  And I am expecting the very best.

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