It seems a strange time to be going on holiday.....

...but also a very right one.

Last August when I sat in the final Spirithorse circle - Shivam asked who wanted to go to India - and as I looked around - to see who's hands were up - I realized mine was - which just seemed the right place for it to be!!

Though I am actually very tired - last week and this, saw the finale of months of work - and in many ways the timing has been really good - as it has been a very hard few weeks/months. I'm also leaving things with a lot of uncertainty about my future at work but also feel very reconciled to this. My life will change whilst I'm away, through changes to me and changes to circumstances. I can now do no more but embrace whatever occurs.

Which is a good starting point for a holiday - though this will like no other holiday I have ever been on - I have no idea as to itinerary - or even where I'm staying beyond the first night - so wow this is a real adventure. I know we will spend at least 4 days at Arunachala, the holy hill at Thiruvannamalai and I am going to visit a university founded by a man I met in Beirut - but beyond that - hey I have no idea!!!

So am nearly packed, visa arrived yesterday, friends due round shortly and Jimmy for tea tomorrow then a very early start on Friday for my Indian adventure - nervous, excited and just so, so lucky!!!!!!

feeling good but knackered!!!!!!!!!!

Never done anything like the big bid which we submitted today - and it has been an amazing process - months in development - 35 partners in 23 countries - 108 pages - 41,000 words - more than many PhD theses - 4 years funding - 4+ million euros. Pushing to the edge in many ways.... way out of my depth .... but knowing what I feel to be truthful and going for it - also knowing that it is not the usual - in fact quite the opposite - will either be loved and scored very highly - or will not - in which case - stops there.

Made the decision a few months to go for it - so it doesn't play the rules - good - I don't think I know how to play the rules - the briefing in Brussels said - we want to have bids which are not like the normal bids - and they've got one - the question is - will they like it? I haven't the time or inclination to do this again - so if it is funded my life goes in that direction - if it is not - my life goes in that other direction...... feel very reconciled about this - and also quite excited!

Funded or not - I have learnt so much from doing it - and know so many more things - and got close to so many people - special open hearted people - through long hard days and often nights of mainly email conversations - with me as the only one with English as my first language - and in the context of my Spanish - different league.

It is amazing how wonderful people came into your life to do the bits you can't do - but hey ask and you shall receive! Attention to detail - hard nights this week because I lost focus on individuals and where they are - but of course the small things are so important - and staying true - at all times. Feel good about all this but also knackered!!!!!!!!!

buff - who wants birthdays!!!!!!

Can't say I like birthday's - the counting of every year you have completed - do I want to be this old - but how lucky am I to be this age - a huge historical mixture of emotions - yet this year the loveliness of friends and family has really sneaked up on me.

Specialness - and tonight I feel so special - touched by little things - but of course it is the little things that are so important!

A very busy - under-statement day - in an exhausting period of my life - getting up so early every day - and keeping going - got til tomorrow evening to finish this thing - letting it take over my life - but recognising that I will only be doing this for a couple more days - and like Rob said tonight over dinner - you knew this was going to be a rough few days - and I did and it is!!!

Lovely moments - felt them very strongly - thoughtful sisters, messages from around the world, flowers from Vienna, a wonderful conversation with my Mum and my Dad - as they remembered the day I was born - my father 'catching me in his hands' - feeling so loved - dinner tonight in Chili Banana with Rob, Jim and Gilly - lovely, easy, uncomplicated - how lucky is that!

So buffff birthdays I can cope with you - yes I am getting older - but how lucky am I to be alive - and so loved - just so amazingly lucky!!!

When wow becomes hard work... reality check

I keep coming back to the onion skin analogy - you just get through one layer - and then there's another one! Buuuuuuuh - life is like a walk that you set off on - really happy - with a plan to do that little hill in front of you - but you get to the top of that - and what can you see? - another one - so you think I want to get to the top of that one too - so you go for the next one - and surprise surprise - get to the top of that one and guess what! another 'bite size' mountain ahead - so you say I'll do that one too - and then - and then - and then.........

Then you stop and think how lucky am I - to be here - to be climbing this mountain - to be out breathing this fresh air, to feel the breeze in your face and to see the world from a new vantage point - amazing!!!!

Then you continue to climb the mountain - though by this time it is fair to say your feet and other parts of your body hurt - and you are no longer certain if there will ever be a 'mountain top'. But you are hooked on that feeling of being on top of the world, the view of everything around, beneath and above you and the amazing joy of being alive...... and you also recognise that you don't actually have any choice - so you veer between joy and pain... wow ..... well it makes sense to me!!

Context for this - a good weekend - of extremes - Finns on Friday, Wassailing party Saturday - both wonderful - thoroughly enjoying both my professional and my personal life- with good people, honesty and a lot of FUN!!!!!

Doing this on my own - including crack of dawn starts to days working on important (to me) stuff - plus drinking too much and dancing - but you can never dance enough!!!! Know I'm not alone - but hey - I do feel pretty alone quite often - sorrow/joy needs to be felt!!!

Wow - I'm on this mountain trek called life - and I'm still here - this is good - being here is good - feel strong - but also vulnerable - but that's OK.

Hey ho - how lucky are we to be alive!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A week into the new year........

From rainbows on a Spanish mountain top - to snow in a city - an unusual week!

A week of work, tucked up in the house, thrashing out the European proposal. Good thinking - and deep and relevant thinking for my future year. At the moment I don't know where my year will take me - it could go in so many directions - how extra-ordinary is that - wow I'm just so blessed.

But, I also know that I need to keep my feet firmly on the ground..... that was one of the very strong messages of Spain - to stay grounded. I think I have to do this in all aspects of my life - to consciously focus in on being grounded. I did this when I was dancing in Spain - and I know I need to dance like this for a while - and I think I can see how to do it in other aspects of my life, but there is a always a tendency to let oneself drift off.........................

OK - that sounds like a new years resolution, to consciously focus on staying grounded - good I hadn't made one yet - so that's my first. Though I have made some decisions about how I want to live my life over the coming year. Spanish is important - I want to spend as much time as I can in Spanish speaking countries in order to learn how to 'think' in Spanish. Family, friends and colleagues - the people in my life - are just so important, new and old, I do think I need to think through how I am consciously grounded in my relationships with them all. Work, I feel that I will go with my intuition, that doesn't sound very grounded but I have worked very intuitively for a long time now - so with work I will just continue like this. Teachers, yes, they are very important to me at this stage of my life, I need to respect my teachers but learning is a mixture of consciousness and intuition - so I will prioritise giving myself time to do both - I suppose that's a form of being grounded - giving oneself time.

But I smile at myself and the seriousness of my blogg - so I will give myself the time and freedom to have fun and to cherish and enjoy every second of this amazing thing called life!!!!!

Amazing, extraordinary New Year......

It's sometime very early on the 3rd of January and I have just come back from Spain.......... I'm wide awake in bed, music on, drinking chamomile tea and eating Christmas cake 'cos that's the only thing I could find to eat... with a hot water bottle at my feet - so I'm perfect... but I'm also completely at a loss for words to describe my new year.....

What I actually want to say is .........wow................ wow............... wow..... dear blogg I have been doing some amazing things over the last couple of years but my experience of the last few days has beaten them all. There were so many different things happening which all added up to a heady and powerful mixture - but maybe it wasn't a lot of things together - maybe it was just the whole thing - as a complete thing - or maybe it was just what happened to me - or .... maybe I have just become totally incoherent!!

OK - certain things can be described - an amazing house, built specifically for dancing, on top of a mountain, above a river in flood, surrounded by olive trees, the extra-ordinary weather, gale force winds, huge clouds, mountains with snow on their peaks, a full moon and so many rainbows they were in danger of becoming common place - huge rainbows which arked over the valley, often double, dwarfing the mountains with their intensity.... we even had a lunar rainbow from the full blue moon in partial eclipse on new years eve.........

So that was the setting for eight of us to ceremonially dance out the old year and dance in the new one... which we did - the deepest, wildest and most profound dancing I have done... beautiful, wonderful and transformative.

We also sat around a large table and ate the best of food, drank wine, told stories, talked and laughed but most of the time we danced and went deep and then deeper.................................... wow - it truly was amazing.

Dancing like that, with a powerful teacher, is a gift... but I also recognised myself and the work I put into my dancing... it wasn't easy ... many times it was painful, excruciatingly painful.... but it was worth it... I learnt so much from my fellow dancers and I know that they learnt from me.. and it was also just such an amazingly beautiful process...

This is a bit incoherent ... but back to my mantra - how lucky am I..... something new though - luck and recognising and cherishing good things - big and especially small - go hand in hand....

Secret afternoon.....

Today I should have been dancing in Spain but after several hours hanging around Liverpool airport - my flight was cancelled due to the thick fog, which ironically broke into beautiful sunshine as I got the bus home!!

Standing in a huge long queue - I had the sense to phone Rob - who booked a flight for me tomorrow - so I got the bus home and have ended up having a lovely afternoon with Alex!

We lit a huge coal fire and watched the Dr Who Hamlet - though after a very early start this morning - I did doze through the middle bit.

Sitting on the sofa, basking in the coal fire, I also wrote a long letter to one of my teachers, which ended up reflecting on the last year - I really enjoyed writing it - can't remember when I last wrote a hand written letter.

It was just so good to take a few hours to reflect on my year - it has been such a roller-coaster of a year - looking back I am amazed at what I have done and become over the last year.

I wrote that I don't think I have changed - I think that I have just become more me! But I also recognise that this me - is a very different me to the one of three years ago - and having my parents here - and talking deep - different from the young me.

But basically they are all me - just different phases of my life - and I suppose that's what they are - phases in my life. What has happened over the last three years has accelerated this rate of change - I think I have gone through several phases of my life/development in just a few years.

Anyway Alex and I topped off the afternoon with a yummy macaroni cheese - Alex's favourite - in the front room - and off to Spain tomorrow but feeling that I have had a secret and special afternoon in my own house!

Christmas Eve.....

... and my house is full of family, food and warmth.... it feels a very long time since this has been the case.

This is the first Christmas I have had at home since Chris's death, we have been going to my parents, special and lovely times, though under-pinned by a sense of loss.

I still feel that sense of loss, but it has evolved and grown into a bigger recognition .... I see it more as the huge sadness that we all live with... death the other side of life.. but somehow I feel I can embrace it more now.. if that makes sense.

When I danced Heartbeat the other week, I felt very strongly the two sides of sorrow/joy and how the recognition of the one enables the feeling of the other... and that's how I'm living my life at the moment, cherishing the joy and embracing the sadness..

My beautiful, wonderful and amazing parents are here staying in my house... I can hear my father humm,humming down the landing. 92 he has made my Mum (89) a cup of tea and brought it up for her.. as he always gives her a cup of tea in bed at 8.00.

They have been married for 63 years and my father's greatest pleasure is to give my Mum a cup of tea in bed at 8.00. A symbol that they have awoken to another day..... together. I remember my Dad saying years and years ago that the most amazing thing in his life was to be married to my Mum, waking up in different places around the world with my Mum's passion for travelling - a passion that he didn't really share!

My Mum still yearns to travel but my Dad is now saying that he finds it too hard to do... the trip to the Arctic Circle this Easter being just too much for him.... and my Mum sits there last night saying.. Oh Jimmy I don't know why you don't like travelling any more.. and my Dad saying I really can't do it any more .. I would if I could... and Alex and I just sitting in awe at the two of them.

So I am determined to cherish the joy of them whilst also recognising the preciousness of their time with us. My sons are just wonderful, they have just sorted and organised everything - well Rob has - and Alex and Jim did what they were told!!

I went to work until yesterday, arriving home just before Rob brought my parents... and it snowed, and I cooked and we ate, and we laughed and played bridge and had a carry on sorting out things and did what a lucky family does.. being together.. joyfully.. and with a deep love.. in the presence of my parents 6 decades of love.......

So enough of this sloppy business, time to make porridge and deal with the details of house guests... and get sorted for neighbours and friends at 6, big Christmas dinner tomorrow with family and friends, Boxing Day at the Foulkes.

Yes I am so lucky.......................

Pretty rough week........

It's Thursday night/Friday morning on what has been a pretty rough - yet in retrospect a very necessary week - who said learning is easy!!!

Anyway tonight has been wonderful – our night out - what an amazing bunch of people work in my team – I feel so very proud of them all! They are all so special and individual.

Looking back - the traumas of the beginning of the week were to do with me not recognising how central our work is in their individual lives. I see it as my passion – but have not been fully recognising how it is also their passion and in fact their lives.

So it is our lives – some more with conscious awareness than others – but the reality is that we don’t do this for the money – we do it because we believe in it!

Lessons aren’t easily learnt – and I feel that I have learnt such a lot this week – and then we danced together tonight – lovely – and they are good dancers of course!

So time now to go to sleep – and tomorrow to appreciate even more – the wonderful people that I live my life with.....

Sunday morning at home....

It's Sunday morning and I'm in bed, listening to music and having my breakfast - porridge with yogurt, Lebanese honey and almonds, freshly squeezed orange juice, fruit tea with Swiss honey - reflecting on how sweet my life is - there was a time when I was quite anxious about living on my own - but is just so good!

Went out with Gilly and Rob on Friday night to Estaban's - drinking wine and talking, arguing and laughing - like we do - cooked Jimmy an enormous fried breakfast yesterday and then we just slobbed around all afternoon - I watched the Strictly semi final - my first TV for a couple of weeks - then a Spanish DVD.

Today I'm going to walk down town and get the train to New Brighton for my Belly Dancing lesson - I'm so into walking at the moment - it gives me space to think.

I'm also meditating quite a lot - though I sometimes find it quite hard when I'm away - but being at home is lovely - I can just go - but I also need time to think - and walking gives me that - and of course I need time to dance!

But now I'm wrapped up in my beautifully warm bed, just appreciating and relishing all the wonderful things in my life, counting my blessings, lucky, lucky me.......

Part of a wonderful family...

It is amazing where I go in my life - and I was feeling down on Saturday when I left Liverpool - but now I just feel so blessed. I have spend three days with a wonderful group of people - I spoke at the final session at the conference yesterday and described them as my EUCU.net family - which is what they have become. A very special and self selecting group of people - who share my passion - we talk - with passion - and a strong feeling of shared values, mission and driving purpose to our lives.

We work hard and continue late into the night over beer or gluewein - talking deeply, sharing our hearts and exposing our souls - like brothers and sisters we argue and play games, laughing and crying together - and people think I'm at a conference!

Although English is the language of the conference I have spoken quite a lot of Spanish with my new sister Ana from Columbia, and also understood quite a lot of German – though I can’t speak it – it is so amazing to be with like minded people from across the globe – how lucky, lucky am I. That’s good I’m glad I can see and feel how blessed I am – I have an obligation to cherish very beautiful second of my life – boy do I veer between extremes!

Feeling a bit down....

Shouldn't be.. but I suppose sometimes you should accept it - as that's the way it is. I think I just feel a bit over-whelmed at work at the moment - I'm going to Bratislava today - which will be fun but also very hard work. I also don't feel as certain as I usually do - and just a bit down....

Well I suppose that's the other thing - I have no-one in my life that I can just say - I'm feeling a bit down today - that's not true - I have lots of people in my life I could say that to - but I suppose I don't want to tell anyone!

Anyway blogg I've told you - so now I must get up - pack my bag and go to Slovakia - I have absolutely no reason to feel down and every reason to count my blessings and recognise how lucky I am!

Full and lovely weekend..........

... started with a Spanish lesson straight from work on Friday - and then I met up with Vanessa later and we went back to Hector's for a party - we drank far too much wine and got home exceptionally late - but it was such good fun - I love going out with Vanessa - we just enjoy ourselves - even though the day after with - missing phones, recollections about fancy dress hats - and was there really a band playing in the front room - left us both more than a bit hazy!

Saturday belly dancing lesson - enjoying these tremendously - I have so many teachers in my life at the moment - 10 at last count - I look back and I really only had one for decades - and that was Chris - and probably not acknowledged by me as a teacher at the time - but now I consciously need a lot of teachers - with a very new consciousness and appreciation - though I was always a challenging student! Hector did get his revenge at some unearthly hour of Saturday morning - by getting me to talk Spanish as he was proud of me as his student - don't think after that amount of wine I did him proud - but I was actually very pleased!

Saturday night went to my beautiful sister Jenny's and Ali's 40th wedding anniversary - what a truly wonderful party - so much love - given and received - a very special night - Ali's tender and heartfelt speech, my lovely Mum and sister Ann doing what we do - and I was glad that I remembered Michael - felt him very strongly - and had a wonderful conversation with Ben this morning - which was so special.

Driving over yesterday - and then talking with Susie last night - the rawness of those few days - getting the phone call from Ben - going to Bryony's with Rob and meeting Ben - talking to police then - phoning my sister Jenny to tell her that her 19 year old son Michael was dead - them all getting home - the nightmare of every second - I think I could reconstruct practically every hour of those few days.

Wow - just re-read this blogg so far - bit extreme - but I suppose that's were I am in my life at the moment - recognising the extremes of my life - and appreciating every precious second of it!

Kahlil Gibran

I was sent this poem last night from a fellow dancer and it has so much resonance for me.

Gibran was part of my childhood, as the Prophet was one of my Father's books - but I don’t remember it being discussed - but he was there – but I had not read his work until last week.

And then a week last Saturday, I actually went to the little town of Bsharri in the Lebanon, where Gibran was born - his family bought an old monastery and had made it into his tomb and a museum with his photos and writings etc and it was very special. I bought a couple of his books there and just loved his writings - last Saturday I read from Gibran over breakfast before we went dancing - they were that kind of house guests - they indulged me!

But this poem sums up perfectly how I felt when I danced Heartbeat this weekend.

On Joy and Sorrow Kahlil Gibran

Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.
And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears.
And how else can it be?
The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.
Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter's oven?
And is not the lute that soothes your spirit, the very wood that was hollowed with knives?
When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy.
When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.

Some of you say, "Joy is greater than sorrow," and others say, "Nay, sorrow is the greater."
But I say unto you, they are inseparable.
Together they come, and when one sits, alone with you at your board, remember that the other is asleep upon your bed.

Verily you are suspended like scales between your sorrow and your joy.
Only when you are empty are you at standstill and balanced.
When the treasure-keeper lifts you to weigh his gold and his silver, needs must your joy or your sorrow rise or fall.

Dancing Heartbeat.............

Started this blogg last night but got as far as the title - when the combination of a wonderfully long hot bath, a lovely dinner on my own with candles and dancing Heartbeat for the whole weekend - all caught up on me and I have slept – a beautiful long and deep sleep, which I know my body needed.

Listening to your body is so much a part of Heartbeat and then dancing your body through, with and into deep emotional places – just an amazing gift to have been given. We started Friday with fear and anger and ended up yesterday with joy and compassion, having travelled with sadness through some of Saturday and Sunday. We danced in the huge space of the Blackie to Joe’s powerful drums and percussion music.

The dancing was extra-ordinary good but then I had two house guests, who just made the whole weekend even more special and magical. Very different women, on very different journeys, but the three of us just gave and got so much from each other – we talked, ate, listened and walked to and from the Blackie to dance. On Saturday night I cooked a meal, we lit a fire in the front room and they gave me a full body massage which I can still feel the warmth of. I just got so much from their company and our conversations - and I know they did to.

At this moment in my life – or perhaps it has always been throughout my life – I don’t know – but at this time - when I need to talk something through - or to be shown how I could think differently about something I don’t understand – then people appear in my life – it’s quite extra-ordinary. Wonderful people with knowledge for me – it’s like their lives have been filled with experiences which gave them just the perfect piece of knowledge that I was looking for at that particular moment in my life.

Sometimes you just can’t see what others can see – and different people use their own knowledge to see things in you and they can see clearly what you cannot – and that is what happened this weekend. I knew things about myself, but couldn't’t see them and in particular I have been thinking a lot recently about my relationship with men, including sexual relationships. I was with my beautiful Chris for all my adult life, we grew up together, worked things out together, blossomed together, and to move on I really need to think through what I want, but also, and this was the big eye opener of my weekend – what I have to offer.

So whilst I was dancing through fear, anger, sorrow, joy and compassion, I was also given the opportunity to talk through where my journey is taking me and like so many times recently, the result shook me as a real surprise but then when I thought about it - I realised that of course this isn't a surprise - it's what I'd known for a long time – and something my life has been preparing me for and something which my heart knew all along!

Mantra time – how lucky am I........................

feeling on top of it .. but also a bit out of my depth!

Next stage stuff - in London at a weird sort of do with Belgiums - making my mark - but not certain why or even how - but knowing I am!

Crazy atmosphere tonight - as what seems to be the entire Algerian ex pat community is partying in Trafalgar Square 20 yards for my hotel – plus fireworks! Rang Robbie to get details of football achiement.

Learning so much from talking to people whose lives have involved living in several countries and recognising how much they have going for them - but also - after wonderful conversations tonight – how this leads to their own set of vulnerabilities!

Know that I want to live in a Spanish speaking country for a minimum of three months - it's the only way I'll get fluent. Wow that's a big decision I've concreted tonight! Feeling a little bit out of my depth - then had long phone call with Lesley – wonderful – and the Algerian party continues outside my window!!!

Sunday - belly dancing - easy - then Nita and Pat - mind blowing!!!

Nita and Pat have been round for tea today with Rob - so special. There are some people in your life that you are just so privileged to know and Nita and Pat are two of them - truly inspirational women.

They could be seen - and were for a long time - as the two little sisters of my amazing friend Jeanette - for those who don't know - my best friend of my younger days - Jan died aged 39 - amazing/beautifully in your face/free spirit - woman and mother of two young children Sam and Jess - a death too early - and a death that left a lot of unfinished ripples.

Anyway - today on Jess's 18th birthday we - the Liverpool we - ate, talked and drank wine and went back into our lives - we did go forward with Rob for a bit - but most of the time we went backwards and relished and cherished and remembered - it was so good that Rob was there - because a lot of that time - hard/dark days - he was there - as a young man - growing up - but part of it - I look back and see how much weight was put on him - not easy - I need to recognise this more.

Nita also talked about the day she was told by her beautiful husband to be - Neil - that he had early onset Alzheimer's - she was still in her 20's - how hard was that - to be a young woman in love - to be told in your late 20's that your gorgeous man has Alzheimer's!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It turned out to be Huntington's Chorea - but basically, 17 years later, Neil can no longer speak or move - though still regains consciousness - and Nita - to listen to the detail of the day to day - wow Nita is truly the most inspirational woman I know.

This blogg has been really good for me - como siempre - because through writing about it - I understand what I know - or don't know!

winding down - being at home

It is good to be at home - though have spent much of the day - doing what needed to be done i.e. washing and ironing etc - but it is still lovely to be home.

It's Saturday night and Gilly and have I have drunk wine and eaten Gilly centric food and enjoyed ourselves- and also talked honestly.

What's happening to me - is also part of my friends lives - and Gilly especially - I need friends who can help me keep my feet on the ground.

Not certain as to what is exactly happening in my life - but feel/see that I need some special people to be close to me.......................

Wide awake when I should be sleeping.............

It’s late – Beirut body clock is now at 3ish in the morning but I’m just really wide awake – probably because I slept on the plane – both planes – I’m really tired but not sleepy!

Have been looking back at the last few weeks in my blogg – I have been to some amazing places! Also think I probably over-use the word amazing – but it does seem to be the appropriate one.

Earlier today I was in Beirut – that in itself is pretty amazing (there’s that word again) on my own –got pretty good at that over the last three years – making the most of the opportunity of being in the Lebanon – but also so very aware of my own ignorance.

I miss my lovely Chris – he could have told me the dates and details of the Ottoman Empire – the various nightmare waves of fighting/anarchy over 19 years in Beirut - and the centuries of religious conflict in Lebanon and the Middle East – and beyond. I suppose that the big thing in my mind at this moment is how we are so interconnected – people having been moving around the world – from when? From the beginning I suppose.

The scale is accelerated by airplanes – the big thing that struck me about the Lebanon though was the centuries of movement of people. The city of Byblos – where I walked around the castle etc this morning – had pre-historic archaeology then millennium of levels going back 8000 years!!!!!!!

The movement of people.......

Well suddenly feel I need to sleep......

Wow, wow, wow ...... wow!!

Don't know where to start!

Beirut has been amazing on several levels.

Work wise very good - really helped my thinking and met lots of good people and listened and talked solidly for last three days!

Beirut wise - well amazing - difficult to explain - but I have just loved my time here, the people I have met and the places they have taken me to - on the physical, emotional and spiritual planes - lot of going places in that sentence! But just amazing!

One more short day and then home - knowing it will take me a while to process all this - both professionally and personally!

Can't get away from the matra - how lucky am I...........................................