Only a few weeks left of my summer holiday and my Mind, Body and Soul Mission Summer 2008. This summer has been spent in reflection and introspection and I do believe I made progress towards a higher level of personal awareness. I finally acknowledge that I dislike living in a classist society and that I will never really FULLY integrate into the mindset of those around me. I am relieved on one hand to know that my moral compass is strong, but burdened knowing that my moral compass and the society around me will always live in conflict together. I understand now that I will battle this personally whether I am in America or here in Egypt. I finally recognize that I have an innate sense to understand people around me and what makes them tick. I believe this comes from a deep capacity to feel empathy at many levels for others. This is also taxing, as I find myself putting myself in everyone elses shoes, which leaves me little time to stand in mine and also leaves room for me to loose myself in others issues. I have zero tolerance for racism and social injustice and at times see these complex issues in black and white. I also view the world now as a whole, not broken up into continents, countries, or cities. I see people pluralistically, instead of through nationality, race, gender, religion, etc. I hear the news and I can relate to the place and/or subject. Take Georgia for instance, a five hour flight from Amsterdam to Cairo, during which I had a lengthy conversation with a gentleman from Georgia. I thought of that man every time I watched the news this past week. I wonder about him, his family, if he is ok, is he displaced, does he need medical help. It is real to me now. Sudan's Darfur is real, I have a sudanese maid....I often wonder what he has been subjected to in his life and I wonder about his family. Iraq, Afganistan, Japan, Spain, everything is real to me now. I will continue my efforts over the next couple of weeks to improve my level of awareness and hopefully implement my new personal knowledge about myself to create a better life. I am still working on the same character defects and personality issues that I have been working on for 20 years, these may never change. I am happy to be able to declare that they exist and own them. I find serenity in the understanding that you never live one minute longer or one minute less than what God has deemed for you to live on this journey in life. I also find peace in the affirmation that we take nothing with us when we leave this world, but we are responsible for what we leave behind. There is great power in that knowledge and with great power comes great responsibility. I hope that I will be able to move forward in my adult life as a faithful steward to the people and issues that I care about. I pray that when I leave this earth, I will leave the people and the places that I have visited a little bit better from having known me.

Until next time,

A Woman of Egypt