Borders signify change and a new beginning. They’re a crossing over into unknown territory, evoking feelings of possibility that contain great hope as well as great fear. But borders are also a closing off. When we enter new terrain, we’re closing off what came before both physically and philosophically. We can never go back. Nature allows no birth without a corresponding death.
Major life changes often slip by unnoticed. We never think to mourn the passing of our childhood until middle age. But I stopped one day in the middle of a dusty road at the edge of Nicaragua to look back at where I’d come from. I shed my skin, sloughed off what I’d been before, and emerged transformed and renewed. I put one foot forward, then another, and I stepped into a new future.
Truer words never spoken.
Everyone should spend a week in another country, with the land and the people away from the resorts embracing foreign life. (Well, not too far away from the resorts – I mean who would shine my dress shoes?)
LA Mike – they can read about your sand-filled dress shoes in our upcoming newspaper piece
I can’t wait to read the book!