Leaving

I will be leaving VA on Tuesday. In some ways, this has been one of the hardest and most challenging times of my life. In other ways, it has been one of the richest and most blessed times. There are a lot of mixed emotions right now - sadness about leaving, joy at new beginnings, anxiety - oh, the anxiety - such a slow and killing stress! My friends and I will be scattering to the four winds. The gestation is over and the labor has just begun. For me, it will be the labor of a lifetime. I cannot forsee the future nor predict it. I can only embrace it. 'This becoming is harder than it seems' - Rich Mullins, I think. To my fellow FPOers, it has been a joy to know you - Via Con Dios.

New York New York

New York was great. We went to the Empire State building (did not climb to the top as it was $18 to do so), went to Battery Park and viewed the Statue of Liberty from across the Harbor, saw Ground Zero, went to Times Square, Central Park, and past the New York Public Library. We had lunch at an Italian restaurant and then went to Tiffany's. It was a lot to pack into one day! I think the coolest thing for me was seeing the city wake up. Our bus arrived at 6:00 am in China Town on Sat. morning. There was no one on the streets or the subway. As the day progressed the city came alive. By the time we left, the subways were standing room only. It was fascinting to see this great city come alive and realize even New York has its rhythms and times of solitude. One day I would like go back and spend a couple of days just being a tourist. What a great land we live in!

Please Write Me!

To all my friends, family, and aquitances out there - please 'post' me! I am eagerly seeking posts (nice ones please) - I am checking frequently and beginning to feel like ET - stranded and needing to phone home. Am I am the only one reading my posts?(that's a sad commentary on my lonely life!!!!!!!!)

New York

I will be traveling to New York tonight on a bus with 3 other girls. This was a last minute invitation of sorts but I have never been to New York. We will be traveling through the night, arriving in New York sometime tomorrow morning and spending the day there. We will board the bus back to VA at 5:00 pm tomorrow evening. If you have questions please see the blog title (cheat sheet - 'The Grand Adventure'). In the words of Lady Marsden, "Something about it appealed to me" For anyone who has read 'Oldest Living Confederate Widow' I will not end up in wrapped in a bedsheet sitting in a smoking tree. But something about a trip to New York did appeal... Carpe diem!

Obituary for Monday

Monday Walker died Monday, September 10, 2007. He is survived by a brother, Tuesday, currently of San Antonio, and his mommie, Rebecca, currenty of Virgina. Monday was my cat for 10 years. He was beloved and will be greatly missed.

September 17th

Today would be my grandmother's 111th birthday if she were alive. I cherish wonderful memories of my grandmother. My sister and I have talked at endless length about the chocolate covered cherries she kept in her china cabinet (to be brought out when the parents were not present), lying in her front bedroom and listening to the night traffic in the moonlight, and banging on the old upright piano in her living room. I remember sitting on my grandmother's front porch and watching the evening sun slant through the pecan trees. That moment is forever fixed in my mind as a pinacle of peace.

My grandmother gave me many things, most of them intangiable and unseen except by the heart. She gave me a sense of belonging, her indominable spirit of generosity, and her fierce independence. One of the things that is etched in my memory is that every time we visited (and that was often as my mother had four children under the age of 5), she would go to the top drawer of her dining room buffet and take out money. It was only years later that I learned from my mother that this was usually only five or ten dollars - just enough to pick up milk on the way home or meet another need that is now long forgotten. Not much to us, but a lot to an elderly widow living on social security. Yet it was such a ritual between her and my mother that I marked it in my child's mind and the selflessness etched itself on my soul.

I wonder what she would think if she could see me now (and I believe that she can)? Would she be pleased with this venture into the unknown? Would she worry, would she offer to pack a lunch for me? Would she be proud of me, spirit of her spirit and bone of her bone?

To my grandmother - Lorine Goodwin Shackelford
Born September 17, 1896
Died Decemember 9, 1980

Greetings!

Hello fellow journeyers! This blog is intended to give you a look, funny or not, at my life in Central Asia. I will be in America until late October but will be keeping you posted through this website. Please keep in mind that this website is just the day to day stuff. Blessings to each of you.