Always Coming Home

Hello everyone!

In the whirl wind of wrapping up projects, saying good byes and packing up my Nepali life I have found far too little time to write in the last couple months. Please accept my apologies for the silence! More posts will come soon, as I find the time to reflect during my transition back to the United States. Yes, that’s right – I have officially completed my service as of one week ago. I currently write to you from the balcony of my friends apartment in Abu Dhabi, overlooking the Persian Gulf and trying not to bake in the hot hot sun.

To begin, I would like to share a poem that my Director of Programming and Training shared with us a couple months ago. I’m sure my mom will especially appreciate it’s message ;)

More stories, always more, coming soon!

A

AD beach 2

 

Always Coming Home

Please bring strange things.
Please come bringing new things.
Let very old things come into your hands.
Let what you do not know come into your eyes.
Let desert sand harden your feet.
Let the arch of your feet be the mountains.
Let the paths of your fingertips be your maps and the ways you go be the lines of your palms.
May your mouth contain the shapes of strange words.
May you smell food cooking you have not eaten.
May the spring of a foreign river be in your navel.
May your soul be at home where there are no houses.
Walk carefully, well loved one, walk mindfully, well loved one, walk fearlessly, well loved one.
Return with us, return to us, be always coming home.

-Ursula LeGuin