A challenge for any one who writes is to synopsize the heart in a short amount of time.
I have fifteen minutes in this airport lounge before I have to high-tail it to my gate... and catch the plane that will take me to San Francisco.
Ten years ago I didn't have a passport. Today, going through South African customs I was reprimanded for having only two pages left. I will have to get extra pages from the closest embassy.
Travel used to be exciting - cathcing planes and going to new countries. The stamps, visas and permits in my passport were a source of joy and accomplishment in a way: "Look what have done for God! Look where I have gone and sacrificed myself!" It's easy to get pumped up when you see how God works in different areas of the world. It is nearly addictive.
Today, planes are like cars - I know the different models; the ups and downs of each airline. They get me where I want to go, and it is always the people waiting for me on the other side that I want to see.
I have left Mario (my heart, my right hand, my prince) back in Johannesburg and am half-way between South Africa and the USA in Dubai. Situated in a beautiful country of United Arab Emirates, flying Emirates airlines (my favorite). The Dubai airport is like a city, similar to the Beijing airport - a hub where all roads come into and go out of in the middle east.
I will arrive in San Francisco and be picked up by my little sister Shari. I still remember her on the top of the slide waiting her turn to splash into our pool when we were kids. She was always small for her size, and made my heart leap forward in protection anytime I sensed danger. Now she has four kids and a homestead in Rescue.
I will see my daughter, Alicia....my baby. I will see Harmony, her baby. And the smallest baby Alannah who is celebrating her first birthday. The emotions tied up in the last two sentences are incabable of describing the supercharged emotion surroundimng them.
I will not see Vince, who I need to see and have been missing terribly.
I won't see the other granddaughters or Joe - I might see David.
I will see my immediate family and we will party for all of the August birthdays among us.
In the middle of all of this celebration is a place of beauty and comfort, but impermanence. I am reminded that I am in between two worlds - physically and emotionally.
This morning I pray, as I dash out the door to catch the next plane... that God will grant me supernatural grace to celebrate in that middle place where I have no sure footing without Him.
All of us have our Dubais.....