My lesson

This summer has swept by so fast...The biggest event was our 2 week visit to Holland. It was a vacation that I will never forget, partly because of introducing Europe to our kids, but also because of the friends and family we connected with.

During the 1st week, we attended a Baha'i Summer School at the Depoort Conference Center; which was filled with seeing old friends, many of whom we hadn't seen for a decade. Over coffees, dinners, and by the campsite, we connected and reignited the amazing friendships we remembered. We also found new shared experiences in our common futures, with family, lifestyles and balance. The close experience of true friendship blew me away.

It was unique, remarkable and so unexpected.

The 2nd week was a continuation and combined visits to older places, where Pieter grew up and visiting places he had been to as a child, having lots of fun and spending some time with family.

Once we got home, we found that a couple of ideas were born from this trip. Some of them acknowledging that perhaps we would find a stronger sense of home in Europe; and others inspiring a re-think on priorities and ensuring that we let the most important aspects of life take center stage.

Either way, it brought us to the realization that there is much fruit to bear and many more things to learn. The direction is unclear, but the journey has begun...

I wanted to end this blog entry with a poem, and message to my friends who I had the great honor of seeing, with whom I shared moments that I will not soon forget. To all of them, I miss you, until the next time. : )

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Friendship

And a youth said, 'Speak to us of Friendship.'

Your friend is your needs answered.

He is your field which you sow with love and reap with thanksgiving.

And he is your board and your fireside.

For you come to him with your hunger, and you seek him for peace.

When your friend speaks his mind you fear not the 'nay' in your own mind, nor do you withhold the 'ay.'

And when he is silent your heart ceases not to listen to his heart;

For without words, in friendship, all thoughts, all desires, all expectations are born and shared, with joy that is unacclaimed.

When you part from your friend, you grieve not;

For that which you love most in him may be clearer in his absence, as the mountain to the climber is clearer from the plain.

And let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit.

For love that seeks aught but the disclosure of its own mystery is not love but a net cast forth: and only the unprofitable is caught.

And let your best be for your friend.

If he must know the ebb of your tide, let him know its flood also.

For what is your friend that you should seek him with hours to kill?

Seek him always with hours to live.

For it is his to fill your need, but not your emptiness.

And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures.

For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.

-Kahlil Gibran
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