With Us

"Even if you're not a seeker,

still, follow us, keep searching with us.
Even if you don't know how
to play and sing,
you'll become like us;
with us you'll start singing and dancing.

Even if you are Qarun, the richest of kings,
when you fall in love,
you'll become a beggar.
Though you are a sultan, like us you'll become a slave.

One candle of this gathering
is worth a hundred candles; it's light is as great.
Either you are alive or dead.
You'll come back to life with us.

Unbind your feet.
Show the rose garden---
start laughing with your whole body,
like a rose, like us.

Put on the mantle for a moment
and see the ones whose hearts are alive.
Then, throw out your satin dress
and cover yourself with a cloak, like us.

When a seed falls into the ground,
it germinates, grows, and becomes a tree:
if you understand these symbols,
you'll follow us, and fall to the ground with us.

God's Shams of Tabriz says
to the heart's bud,
"If your eyes are opened,
you'll see the things worth seeing."

-Rumi

Saturday, November 15, 2008

The journey continues

Zambia:
"Caitie I love you."
"I just met you 10 minutes ago."
"I love you."
"I'm engaged." (I lied)
"He doesn't love you."

oh man... the desperation for an american wife.

Botswana:
-Watched elephants playing in the river in Chobe. They were dunking eachother completely under and swimming!

-Baby spotted hyena!
-Took a mokoro (wooden canoe) into the Okavango Delta... ants poured out of a crack in the wood as we sliced through the reeds... landed on an island with elephants roaming around...pitched our tent in the elephants toilet... learned how to pole the mokoros and went swimming near some grunting hippos... sat with a local woman and learned how to weave.
-volleyball in Maun
-walked around with bushmen in Gahnzi and learned how they live... showed us root that you can get water out of and mix with another root to make soap and wash with.


Namibia:
-ate kudu, zebra, and crocodile... i think my zebra was still alive when i ate it.
-hiked around amazing red and orange sand dunes during sunset and sunrises in the Namib desert. Went to Dune 45, Sossusvlei and Deadvlei and Sesrium canyon... found puddle with catfish inside the gorge that were jumping up for air. Beautiful and serene and open and... breathtaking.


More on Namibia later... currently at the skeleton coast.

5 comments:

sweeetheartfever said...

i love that photo of you. im saving it. i am going to look at it twice a day like people who live in Norway and gaze into light-boxes in order to stay happy. you are my light-box.

dragonflies said...

your descriptions are so vivid, i feel like i'm there too. can't wait to see all your photos.

dragonflies said...

your mom is crying reading your blog... she misses you.

Caitlin said...

baby: i still kiss the rain whenever I see it. you are my light box too.

moms: I miss you too... I'll try to upload more photos when I get better internet. Hugs :)

J V said...

well you blew that chance.