Day Nine: Where and When?

I called this blog “Here and Now” specifically because I want it to be an exercise in being conscious…not just to being in Africa, living in a new culture, speaking a new language (or trying to), engaging in new work, living with a family…but becoming more mindful of the choices I make each day.

So this morning, when I thought about writing about “here and now”, the question came to mind: Where and when did the transformation begin that led me to Dakar?

Was it when I waved goodbye to Mom and Dad and left home with a solid set of old-fashioned values that were based on “love your neighbor has yourself”? Was it sitting with my sorority sisters around the fireplace, listening to “The Velveteen Rabbit," drinking hot chocolate and feeling something bigger than friendship?

Was it when the notion of equality began to be real…first, because I began to notice that I didn’t have it, and later because I noticed that others didn’t.

Was it the realization that substance abuse was robbing me of my power to choose? Was it starting my first business and experiencing both freedom and the power to make all my own business mistakes?

Was it Macchu Picchu at dawn with the shaman and a sacred ritual? Was it my first Spring Equinox Eggstravaganza with Mama Donna? Or the 10-day visioning retreat with Trebbe in New Mexico? Was it sitting in Dr. Corso’s living room, being invited to understand the New Testament within a contemporary context? Or was it fire-walking with Tony Robbins, parachuting from 4000 feet, reading "The Desiderata" in Amsterdam or trying the trapeze with STREB? Was it understanding the truth of the fox's revealing to the Little Prince that “it is only with the heart that one sees rightly”?

Where and when?

Here and now. Every day. To be awake, to choose, to see the gift, to listen, to understand, to give, to love.