en route reflections

Well, I left Canada just over a day ago, and the reality of moving away from family and friends has begun to set in on another level. Fortunately I get to make this transition incrementally... I've stopped off in Europe for two weeks to visit friends and family while PTE and EACID nail down a few final details (little things like my accommodations, and hiring my Egyptian counterpart). I'm not worried though... inshallah (God willing) things will come together.

During the hop across the pond I had a chance to reflect more on this journey and the people I'm missing in Canada. Earlier this summer I wrote a poem for my parents about this transition, and as it sums up many of my thoughts I'd like to share it with you here:


The Nomad

Five years, twenty countries, thirteen homes…
It’s time to stop counting.
Yet the caravan of bikes, boats, buses,
camels, cars,
planes, trains,
trams, trucks, and trotros
that have tussled me around the world -
and the tapestry of familiar far-off faces
come crowding in with fond reminiscence.

“How do you feel about being a nomad?” she asks.
“To meet incredible souls all over this beautiful blue ball,
but forever be leaving them behind?
“Do you ever get tired of uprooting?”

Well, my sister, only my heart can tell of that pain -
of the longing and loneliness of separation,
of hollowness,
the folly of attachment,
of forgetting…
of facing a future away from family
and a past of disconnection...

But only my heart can sing of the splendour -
of roots nourished in the soil of your global smiles,
of the joy of learning...
that all our hearts beat as one,
that your pain is my pain is our pain, and
that as we share the burden it melts as a moth’s wing in the light.

This is what gives me the strength to travel.
This is the blessing I live each day.
Only, I needed to remember.
I needed to acknowledge, with gratitude,
the gifts I have been given in this life,
And the people who have sacrificed
for my love of this quest.

Now the wind is calling across the Sahara
the caravan is ready to move camp
but this time may it be a journey of integration
no severed ties, no empty hollows -
just peace and freedom echoing across our souls.