Part of Me Remains in Africa

I’m back now, but not completely.

Part of me remains in Africa.

If you look in my eyes, forgive me if I seem aloof, distant – I am still seeing the red earth of Mother Africa under my feet, heavily pregnant zebras carrying the promise of summer and a new life, herds of antelope and wildebeest sharing holy ground with the lions—intimately aware of every movement, every sound…white-backed vultures perched in leaf-less trees and circling high, high above—sacred alchemists purifying that which is dying and done.

Part of me remains in Africa.

The radiant golden sun rising and setting, rising and setting, rising and setting over the bushveld time and time again. Time passes. Time stands still. It is all the same. I remember this now.

I rise with the sun, I sleep with the stars. I am one with the Earth. She is me, I am Her.

If you ask me how it was or what we did, forgive me if I have no words. There are some experiences so intimate, so soulfully-rich, so mind-blowingly mysterious that to explain them would strip the meaning and purity away. I can only offer you a new experience of being in my presence. Perhaps you’ll feel it. Perhaps not. I’ve surrendered that, too.

I am less than I was before I went. Lighter. Dreamier. Quieter. Softer. So much of ME has been dissolved, allowing for so much more of WHO I AM to shine through.

Unraveling, dismantling the parts of ME that clung so tightly to life, to timelines, to responsibilities, to stories about what’s important and how things should be done. I have forgotten why those things mattered so much. I have forgotten why I was so stressed out. I have forgotten why I was so resentful and angry. I have forgotten why I pushed so hard.

I have remembered peace. I have remembered beauty and the perfection of stillness, of patience, of not needing anything from anyone, not needing anything from myself. Contentment.

I have remembered my place in the whole of Creation. I have remembered the song of the stars. I have remembered what it is to love deeply, untethered to expectations, unattached to outcomes. To Love for the sake of Loving.

I have remembered that it will all be okay.

I have remembered how to dance–barefoot around the fire under a full moon–to the primal pulse of my own heartbeat. A new rhythm, a new pace, a new blueprint unfolding…

I can see the Lions’ tracks in the dusty red Earth, they’ve been here through the ages and will be here forevermore. They are here to stay. They will not leave us, and I will not leave them. I will walk beside them into eternity…together, we will weave and dream and dance and roar a New Earth into being.

Diamond stardust tracks in red earth. A river of gold flowing underneath and above and within.

Part of me remains in Africa.