i'm not sure about this feeling, but i can embrace it

Phew. Folks, I did it. I wrote a post every day for a week. Except I maybe sorta cheated and wrote 3 posts at once and then posted them on their corresponding days. Oh well.

Right now I'm sitting in the San Fransisco Airport. I'm exhausted, emotionally and physically. The sun just set quite nicely outside the window. I tried the water from the water fountain and it tasted funny. Nobody is staring at my sandaled-feet. Nobody is speaking Spanish. Why aren't they speaking Spanish to me? I would speak it to them. But they wouldn't understand...I don't even understand.

Oh, and I'm freezing. Kinda shivering, actually.

Did I mention I was in California?

I hope I bring some spring-ish weather back with me in 2 hours....

I don't know if I'll ever be able to write everything I feel about Mexico. Maybe that's what makes it so special...I can't write it out. I can try my best, but I'll never capture it just quite right.

I'll never be able to explain how eerily wonderful it was to walk to the bus station this morning with 3 of my best friends, the sidewalks empty, my luggage rumbling across the cobblestones, the church bells echoing through the dark streets, thinking about my first night...

I'll never be able to explain what it felt like to watch my kids perform their spectacle on Friday and to have them hug me afterwards and tell me they loved me. I can't explain what it was like for my kids at the other school to bake me a cake, and they didn't even shove my face in it (Mexican tradition...).

I'll never be able to explain the bond we had as teachers. I felt like I knew them all for much longer than 3 months. Clearly it was meant to be. It's true that there are no coincidences....so God must have brought us all here at the same time for a reason. I don't know if I can tell you in words what the reason was. But maybe you can feel it when you read what I've written.

“Let your mind start a journey thru a strange new world. Leave all thoughts of the world you knew before. Let your soul take you where you long to be...Close your eyes let your spirit start to soar, and you'll live as you've never lived before.”

-Erich Fromm