Palm trees, the smell of salt and sea, and birds of paradise, bright orange and purple flowers out the window of the Budget rental car shuttle. San Diego, here we are. We are on the seventeenth floor of a hotel. I can see the jets landing at the airport, every five minutes. And as I look out the window onto the city, I know I have already learned something.
When we got here yesterday, I was tired, hungry and nervous. As we waited for our luggage, a family of four came up to us and asked, "Are you going on Semester at Sea?" "Yes, we are!", we answered, half exhausted and excited at the same time. We exchanged our locations, schools, brief histories with the program. I asked the woman, "What will you be teaching?" "Sexuality." Yes!
As we headed to find our place for the night and food, we all started to deteriorate. A slow death, so to speak. Lizzie started flailing around in the Gaslamp quarter, where all the restaurants are, but don't open until five. Then, Lizzie started poking Andrew and taking his rolling suitcase and running it all over God's green earth; with Andrew screaming and punching behind her. And Andy and I just breathed. We would start in on each other, "I told you we should of eaten lunch at the airport" I would self righteously declare. Andy, "But we only had five minutes between getting to the next plane and boarding." Good point.
When we don't take care of our bodies, we have a very hard time connecting to our souls. And when I say soul, I mean that creative force that is very much alive and well and willing to help us. Many of us wonder if this life within exists because we don't take the time, or don't know how, to connect with it. Because our bodies experience life, we need our bodies to experience our soul life. We did not eat well yesterday. We did not sleep enough the night before. And we hadn't worked our bodies very much, being in an airport and indoors all day. I notice when I disconnect from my body, I disconnect from my soul and all that if offers. Who would have known, connect with your body, connect with your soul? We go to church and don't hear very much about the body, generally speaking. And we go to work out our bodies at the gym, and don't hear very much about the soul. We separate them so severely in our culture. And they are not separate. The body is not an obstacle to be overcome. And the soul is not some fluffy, abstract idea that has no use for us in this nitty gritty, human life. We need them both. And when we connect with our bodies, we begin to open to this pathway to the soul.
As we ate delicious coconut soup, chicken curry in little pots and drank fresh water, our bodies came to life. And so did the beauty within and around us. And we made good decisions, for our bodies and souls. We went to the hotel, instead of Target to buy what we needed for the trip. We went swimming. We rested in our cozy, soft sheeted beds. And watched Sesame Street. Now, we head to the ship to leave at eleven o'clock tonight! But first, we are headed to walk, run, and go plain crazy in the work out room downstairs. I sure hope no one else is in there this morning. We have lots of connecting to do.
