CMH-MIA-LIM.... Barranco is where I be! ;)

Greetings everyone!!!! :))

I'll just start w/ saying if the beginning of this trip is any indication to the rest of my journey, it's going to be one heck of a ride!!! LOL I almost missed my flight from Columbus to Miami... thank GOD for those lil guys in luggage carts!!! I SO owe him... we were flying through the terminal and yes, obviously I made it! hahaha Nothing like an adrenaline rush in the morning... I think I thrive on stress?! ugh. Then in Miami, we had to sit on the runway for 3 hours.... and after massive texting love ones and friends.. my phone died. :( So no conversation w/ my closest, but I was so blessed to have Senora Vega next to me... the chattiest, most lovely creature I have ever met and while no kin to my dear friend Percy, I had to laugh how it feels God has touched this trip in so many ways... but more on that later. :) Then on to my immigration experience where a man from Columbia straight heckled the officer 'checking' us all in for 20 minutes b/c he was SO slow. Seriously, it did take forever, but the man was met w/ giggles, dirty looks and then a woman shouting at him, 'seeeeeeenor!!! por favor! silcencio!' ahhahaha The immigration officer just smirked at the guy and all went quiet again, but not before he had caused quite the clamor amongst my fellow weary travelers. ahahaha

For now, I am jotting whatever I can as quickly as possible as I need to gather my things from my current 'dormitory' style room and go to my personal bedroom in the B n B I am at. Yes, I arrived last night at 2am- Lima time (which btw is only 1hr difference from the States)- only to discover that my bed had been given away as my plane was very late indeed! ahahahha :( What can you do?? I am just rolling w/ it at this point on all fronts... slowly but surely, I have made it where I need to go and all I can say, life is just different here, as one prolly would imagine anyway, eh? :) First and foremost- LOVE LOVE LOVE the submersion experience of stepping into another world and it being so different from everything you know... not just a language, which is fun in of itself... as it really tests the brain and my Spanish (esp since my friend doesn't speak a whole lot of English- so we both work our broken verbal skills equally!! ahhaha) but the people, the culture. So warm, open, inviting and FUN! Strangers smile more than anywhere I've ever known... then again, maybe it's the fact that I am a gringa?? LOL Es possible. ;) Bars and restaraunts stay open waaaaaaaaaaaaaay late- 6am to be exact! I was in a bar at 4:30 am kids and walking down the road w/ a beer in hand to-boot! lol No worries... as this leg of my journey I am with my friend Orlando, so I am safe, and it will be my only moment of partying this week, but it WAS fun!

Lima, and more specifically where I was last night, Barranco is like NYC. Very busy, very loud, very crazy and people evvvvvvvvvvvvvvverywhere!!!! Streets flood w/ people- guys and girls curled up in an embrace; guys shouting at one another; girls pointing out this guy and that guy (and ladies!!! omg. they have every reason to--- ps. I may not come back!! ahahaha) ... and laughter fills the road- well that and about 20 cars packed into a "road" that looks like an alley!! lol BTW- there are NO ROAD RULES here, sure they prolly have 'laws' just like us, but they certainly are not very strict about how they are regulated. Ever seen that video from India where all the cars go and go and go and go and they look as if they will smash into each other by inches????? YUP> that's here too! aahahhaha They do have traffic signals, but when they are flashing- you don't stop- you GOOOOO! Cars switch lanes, mid lane and w/ no signal, just the constant sounding of their horns... beep, beep, beep..... switch!!! LOL Literally, cars drive so close to one another in the centro that you could reach out your window and tap the next car! seriously. lol Crazy how all I could was laugh when I probably should have been gasping for my life! It's just that crazy. :))

Anyway, just some moments I have experienced thus far in the beginning of my journey... I am off to explore Barranco- which is a Bohemian district in Lima- very old, very cool!!! Pics to come. and then Lima, where my friend guarantees me the view of Lima that is amazing! Cannot wait! :)

Awakening...

The sun shines upon me... feeling lifted, twisted;
Hair tousled, spirit soaring, quite giddy;
Floating off into a world of imagination....
Fueling the drive to progress forward,
Keeping one sane in the mid-point of contemplation;
Offering light and opening doors, if for only brief moments of bliss;
It allows opportunities unseen to be...
Setting the mind free.
The feeling of what it all would be like
If it came together as it could...
As it should, solely within the realm of imagination;
Anything is possible within the dream scape,
Anything dreamth can be...
When you're awakening!

To Live or Exist...

"I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them. I shall use my time."

~Jack London

In the Journey...

In the midst of life being turned upside down
I know it makes you want to run
I know it makes you want to hide
When the darkness comes to settle in the night

But baby, hear me when I say-
ONLY the strongest survive
It's not so much what happens
But what you do with it in the mend...

Will this be your beginning or your end?

In the restoration of the perforation in your soul,
Don't let the ebb and flow of life take its toll...
You have to dig in deep, to see your Divinity
What gifts have been bestowed from Grace,
It is what flows in, when it all flows out.

Nothing in this life remains constant- even pain- don't doubt.

Life is no fantasy of being,
It is only of doing
What needs to be done to win
To LIVE the life you're given and
Struggle to get where you're going throughout.

The journey will not always be smooth,
Your eyes will not always remain dry,
But in the process you will ultimately find
Time heals and always prevails.

For in life, as you know, there are wins and losses
Yet it's not so much about how far you are at any one given point,
But how far you've come to get to where you are going.

Don't stop now, don't give up hope...
It's later than you think and you're farther than you could imagine.

Confliction...

I wish to wrap up everything I hold dear in my life, packing it neatly and to take all of it upon a journey....

To the ends of the unknown, to experience moments of bliss of just being. Soaking in the relative and relishing that which is foreign. To lay upon a beach, in the bliss of the sun and to hear voices which do not sound like mine, but I long to understand. To linger by the wayside, cycling upon the hills of far away, breathing in the silence of eternity which stretches before me. Languishing at a cafe, sipping espresso, merely listening to the buzz of humanity in the motion of life. The fluidity of the merengue and a body pressed to mine, lead only by the rhythmical pulse upon a dance floor. To hike upon terrain that holds secrets of long ago, revealing only the retort of bliss from being alive to touch what once was. Perusing through moments in time, placed upon a canvas with great care and passion, which is timeless to the human spirit. To sit upon a bench and watch the water flow beneath bridges of old world architecture; only to ponder within those moments how time has flowed through my own life. To float upon a river, beneath a canopy of green and revere nature in all its glory.

My heart longs to feel and experience what my present cannot offer, but the reality of being able to take what I desire with me is nothing more than that... a simplistic desire. As I consider embarking, I cannot take with me what I want... it will not follow. Life departs in a constant state of many fractions of light. My journey is not one which can be found anywhere but in those places and where my heart longs to be is in many directions. Tugging gently for me to live what I dream to experience.... waiting. Holding onto what I reserve as exquisitely unique; slowly slipping away within my lifetime. I cannot have both; time to let go... a choice to live the life I long to experience which will take me upon a journey that has no clear path. Albeit, no worse than to hold onto the choice to love a life I long to experience which has taken me thus far upon a journey with no clear path.

Time is the only true answer of where to land... it is only within the space encapsulated, which we call life, does God reveal what our choices lead us toward in time.

... my confliction between heart and mind.