31. GET AWAY FROM IT ALL

• Visit a foreign country. Go backpacking in the wilderness. Volunteer in the inner city. Spend a weekend at a monastery or nunnery.

CARPE DIEM:

Plan a trip to somewhere far away. Ask a friend to travel with you. (HEALING A PARENT’S GRIEVING HEART: 100 PRACTICAL IDEAS AFTER YOUR CHILD DIES; Alan D. Wolfelt, PhD; 2005)

So…after meditating this afternoon, I picked up Dr. Wolfelt’s book and read the above passage. So…I did it! I went through my emails and found Immaculee Ilibagiza’s email about upcoming pilgrimages. I signed up for one to Medjugorje. It’s a Marian apparition site in Bosnia Herzegovina, the former Yugoslavia. I’ve been wanting to go there for a long time. I’ve been to Knock, Fatima, Lourdes and even an unapproved (by the Catholic Church) site here in New Jersey. 

If anyone understands what it’s like to lose a child, it is Mary of Nazareth, the mother of Jesus. 

Immaculee is a survivor of the Rwandan genocide and author of a number of books, the first of which was “Left to Tell”, her story of survival. I met her years ago when she spoke at a local church here in New Jersey. I hope this will be the first of many trips with her to apparition sites, including Kibeho in Rwanda.

I did not ask a friend to come with me…but I did invite a friend to go for a walk this afternoon.