It finally hit us...

WE ARE GOING AROUND THE WORLD...tonight at dinner and actually most of the day, there were many moments of realizing that we are actually going around the world...the dust has settled, we are all getting comfortable with our somewhat regular daily routines and starting to delve in the joy and fun of it all...so here is the developing clan (ltor-bob, kate, moi, abby, theresa, mary, dr bob, margaret,jb, and debbie) with the symbol of "going around the world", which for me means that when you are down or you get present to this amazing adventure, one can symbolize this in silence across the room and a grin shows up on each others face to bring you present again to what a blessing we all have in front of us! Of course it also brings tears to my eyes~surely that doesn't surprise anyone, right?

It is only day 9, but in many ways, it feels like day 30...the adjustment of time and space and the speed at which relationships are either developed or potentially destroyed can happen in nano-seconds at sea..it is amazing what a crazy and potentially destructive the day was yesterday, but within 24 hours, the community is coming back to "normalizing" the craziness because of the need to also adjust ourselves to this new environment and to be humble and be graceful with each others foibals (is that a word~clearly not spelled correctly, but who cares, you know what I mean)...

The shipboard community is amazing_I am daily touched, moved and inspired by ordinary people saying and doing extraordinary things to stand tall and firm for their convictions.

I also learned about eneagrams yesterday-for those who follow this, I am a 3, along with Bob, the executive dean. Clearly he is more seasoned but in many ways the jelling that is happening between us is helping make this whole crazy part of this voyage so incredibly palatable~but, I knew that the first time I met Bob years ago, when we potentially thought about sailing together on Semester At Sea. I feel so very blessed to be working with him closely on making this an incredible voyage for everyone!

And so all is well and I am finally settling into this incredible adventure. thanks for the notes that you have sent~it really helps me keep grounded and a real sense of who I am in the larger scheme of the the world! Keep them coming!

much love, ro