Saturday 15 August 2009

I rejoiced when I heard them say - let us go up to the mountain of the Lord...

It is amazing how time flies. Four and a half months from now I will be leaving for Jerusalem. A pilgrimage in a way, yes. And God willing, something more than that. A desert, perhaps? Or a land of milk and honey? I don't know... The only thing that is certain - if I get there, that is - I will not be a tourist. Not a sightseer. I will be living for three months in a convent in a Muslim quarter of the Old City, trying to feel it with my skin and see it with my eyes - and describe it with my words.
I have been preparing for this for two years. I'm not 18 anymore, so I can't just grab my two bags with all my belongings and take the first bus out of here, as I used to. There are loans, and jobs, and stuff, and bills... Endless array of things to arrange. Sometimes I wonder if I have fallen prey to what I was trying to escape -materialism, love of things, being stuck in one place full of expensive crystal and never knowing what life really is about. I am going to Jerusalem to find out.
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." Mark Twain

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