My Mind, Body and Soul Mission Summer 2008 is still in operation. My quest for inner peace and tranquility comes on the heels after a year of feeling emotionally disconnected, some personal dissatisfaction, and the general malaise of living in a city with 28 million people (according to a tour guide at Christmas) as my neighbors. I decided that since we were not planning to travel during July and August, I would spend this summer trying to reach a level of spiritual awareness to improve myself over the summer. This would be achieved by exercise, reading books on health and wellbeing, and watching my diet. During the planning stages of my summer mission, a friend of mine told me about a trip to Saudi Arabia for Umrah that she and her husband would be going on at the end of June. She invited us to join her family, and of course my husband was thrilled with the idea about going to Umrah. We took the decision to go and our plans started from there. I was very excited about the whole prospect, since this would go along perfectly with my Mind, Body and Soul Mission Summer 2008. I went to have the shots, applied for the visa, bought all the galabeyas, abayas and higabs, worked out all the details, and prepared my list to make supplications or "dua'" for all the people who are important to me. I felt I was on the right path towards my spiritual journey of the summer. I readied my mind, I prepared my heart, and I was all set for the journey. I was still working out daily at the gym, meeting all my goals for physical exercise and I felt primed. On the day of our departure, my house was ready, my bags were packed, and we were set to go. All was going as planned. My husband was experiencing some stomach discomfort, but other than popping some medicine to alleviate that, everything was going well. We arrived at the aiport late as usual, we never get to any international flight on time. We boarded the plane and we were off, higab and all. Ready to begin my spiritual journey, ready to be moved into a larger awakening, a different level of conciousness. I surely needed a different frequency than what I had experienced over the past year. I encountered even more than what I expected, although I am not sure exactly what it was I expected. My next blog entries will be about what I experienced and learned during the beginning of my summer mission.

Until next time,

A Woman of Egypt