3 March, 2014 13:01

all this thought of going to africa soon has made me think back to my time in the peace corps.  i stayed for a while in a country called samoa and made a home for myself in a strange and faraway corner of this planet.  i looked back on it a bit this morning and remembered how i felt the first time i saw the beach there and how i never wanted to leave.  suddenly my practice of understanding transience had crumbled and i feared the future and worried about the day that would come when i would have to leave that place.  i'll never forget my first jump into the water, i didn't swim i just dove underwater and emerged on my back with my face to the sky with saltwater keeping me afloat.  moments like that in my life has etched themselves into lines on eyes and memories that i'll hang onto.  

i did end up leaving the islands however and even though it was mysterious how i left i still maintain that my reasons were personal.  my last night with a good buddy of mine brought his words that 'chris has the worst case of wanderlust i have ever seen'.  maybe that is true and maybe i just always assumed that everybody wonders what is on the other side of the mountains and the sea.  

i'm a teacher now, actually i have been for many years.  it's a job that found me and those who i know best have told me that it was something i was meant to become.  i'm really good at it.  sometimes i wish my family could fly out here and watch me but perhaps until then i'll have to make some videos.  i'd like to help anyone who has a wandering heart to learn how to travel and teach, it's really a great gig.  if you turn out to be good at it then your love will be reciprocated tenfold.  

i feel the ending of this current chapter approaching and my heart seems to flutter at the notion of a great journey being prepared for me.  i love the excitement in my students eyes when they encourage me to keep going and to deepen my love for this world.  these photos are of a few students in particular who i'm forever amused by.  they are merve and suleyman, two kids who are young and bright and i could only imagine what the universe has in store for them.

my birthday is next saturday and i'll have traveled around the sun thirty two times.  that's quite a long journey and should i have carried with me a thick piece of string i would have turned this planet into a ball of yarn with it's only star in the middle.  three months from now i'll be in madagascar, first thrown into a busy and intimidating city and secondly alone in the wilderness of a faraway island.  i never know what to tell people who ask me why i am going there but i do know deep in my soul that the same force that has pulled me to every place i have traveled is again pulling me on another adventure.  i know better than to ignore the voices in your heart.  

i'm thankful to the universe for every breath i've ever taken and every footstep i've ever created and every drop that has ever overflown from my cup.  happiness and positivity are practices and not many people are naturally talented in the area.  i suffered for a long time from a sadness that was virtually ignored by those closest to me and i had to learn to overcome it on my own and this has become my perspective on life, we are truly alone in the universe and nobody knows us better than ourselves.  we live in a very turbulent time on this planet.  the problems we face for the future are incredible and grossly overlooked.  i'm tired of wasting energy and i feel a deep need in my heart to explore this world and learn as much about it as i can, perhaps i can learn a thing or two to teach and give some hope to people who forget that there is a light outside of the darkness.