The journey starts NOW....

My flight for Amman, Jordan leaves at 4:53 p.m. tomorrow Eastern time. By Friday night I will be at the Queen Alia Airport in Amman, trading in my cash for Jordanian dinars, buying a temporary visa, catching a taxi ride with classmate Jo Addy to the Four Seasons hotel in Amman, where I will crash with Jo for two nights before moving to the more affordable Belle Vue (a 3-star hotel, $30 US dollars to share a double room per night) ...

It is a region of the world I have never experienced before, a region rich in history, culture, and conflict, a region where stories in the Bible were lived out years ago. I will see the 3,000 year old rose city of Petra, the ruins of Jeresh, and float in the Dead Sea.

I will dance at a Muslim wedding of my dearest grad school friend, beloved Salma, and her fiance Basel. I will taste Arabic sweets, drink Arabic coffee, hear the melodies of the Arabic language in the streets, perhaps have my coffee grounds read to predict my future.

If I had to predict it now, I'd predict a happy future, full of love, peace, pleasure, magic but also service and gratitude. Mostly gratitude. Lots of gratitude.

I am a pilgrim of peace headed overseas to dance my way across Europe and the Middle East! Blessed be.

© Lisa Powell Graham 2006