Friday, May 23

I leave in two days. I'm fortunate enough to fly from Grand Rapids. That eliminates one headache, trying to get to Chicago or Detroit. I'm not fond of the actual traveling process so the fewer steps I must take means a better experience for me. I change planes only once in Cincinnati. When I arrive at Gatwick airport, 14ish hours later, I catch the train to Guildford and then one to Liss. Liss is the closest thing to a town that's near the Manor House. From the Liss Station I can walk two miles either on the road or through the Riverwalk forest trail. Umm.. no contest. If it rains I'll get a cab. It's suppose to rain. Woke up sick yesterday. So my plan is to drink TheraFlu on the couch until Sunday. What I really need is to head to the WTS Library and download some of the Journal materials I'll need during my studies. Not sure if I can make that happen today. Maybe tomorrow. I think I'm packed though. So cross that off the list of anxiety threatening activities. One checked bag. A pack which I can travel easily with, especially when I'm walking, seemingly aimlessly through the English countryside. I have this strange vision of myself. Of what it will be like as I begin my two mile walk, mid day on Monday. I envision continually asking myself how I got to this very point in my life. Not really sure where I am and some vague idea of where I'm going with an even cloudier notion of why. Sometimes that happens to me when I'm in unfamiliar, wide open spaces. I like it. It's like there's nothing else outside myself at that point. Just me, a creature in God's creative world. I'm looking forward to that moment I think.

1 comment:

rstander said...

Hey Rachel...hope you feel better soon. i noticed something about your blog on facebook and thought i would check it out. i am excited to follow your pilgrimage. my recent areas of study swim in similar waters of narratives, place/space studies, memory, and liturgics.

you might enjoy this text with your studies...The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-Than-Human World by David Abram.