the pilgrimage to Cuba begins

We’re gathering shortly for a family meal and then the standby plans begin for the epic trip to Cuba!

If my emotions could play out on a TV screen, they’d look like an episode of BattleBots, fighting to the death. It’s amazing, this human ability to hold two conflicting thoughts in my brain without it exploding. In short, within a few hours I’ll be back in the country where I was born, and I’ll be whisked into a whirling dervish of excitement.

Meanwhile, nerves are a little frayed. By that I mean we’re just not getting in the air fast enough to allay the anxiety of waiting. I’m traveling with my mother and her older and younger sisters. It’s a study in family dynamics. I can’t wait to see this when they join their two brothers who live in Cuba.

Guys, I can’t even begin to say all the things going on in my head and my heart. LOL. Let me draw on my favorite, most consoling quote from the mystic Julian of Norwich:

All shall be well, and all shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well.

I believe it.

I don’t know what my connectivity will be like in Cuba. I’m not traveling as a tourist — not staying in public places that cater to tourists, so I’m going to be living, as much as circumstances allow, the life of the ordinary Cuban. That means no amenities, no internet, no reliable transportation (ok, not that one, but that’s another story), and adopting the very important trait of adaptability.

Cue Julian of Norwich again.

I’d like to be able to post when I can, but in the absence of that, I leave you with the link to the first of a four-part series at Aleteia.org.