Friday, February 11, 2011
Countdown
As with any pending transition, mental countdowns proliferate. This seems to be a combination of anticipation for the new experience and new awareness of incipient absences. Only 6 more bedtime stories to read to the kids, 5 more times to wake up in my own bed, 2 final client visits, dwindling availability of reliable internet and electricity, last easy access to prolific kosher food, only 18 more transition emails to send, last davening in a minyan, one last Shabbat together, the enumeration knows no enumeration. I'm well-versed in the art of appreciating the commonplace sublime that has populated my daily life, but even pause accentuates poignancy. Melodramatic, admittedly, as I am a service corps participant, not a cancer patient, but still weighty as a month is a far longer period than I've ever departed from my happy routine. Now if only any of that anticipation translated into a more practical motivation to pack...
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no shoutout to your better half?
ReplyDeletenow perspective-- you'll be back in a month, with an amazing experience under your belt, to share with your loved ones, which will help inform the way you live your life and teach your children. i'm not talking about the project you'll be working on, but about what you will witness and experience around you. you will almost surely be humbled in a way you never have before. take it all in.
At least now you have an idea what we've gone through before we've left DC for parts unknown. It's a great and rewarding adventure and you know not now how many lives you will touch and how many will touch you before you return! Relish the anticipation...and then freak out! :-)
ReplyDeleteIt's not easy leaving home for a week less much 4. And packing is so not fun, besides whatever you forget you can buy there... hmmm, maybe not this time. Maybe it's more fun to pack than it is to arrive on a CVS-less continent without a toothbrush and a belt.
ReplyDeleteI'll be reading your updates and news. Congrats on getting involved in such a meaningful program.