The chorus from "The Time of My Life" in Dirty Dancing is this: "Now I've had the time of my life, no I've never felt this way before, Yes I swear it's the truth, and I owe it all to you."
When I was thinking about this blog post, I realized time has been on my mind the last five days in Suid Afrika (South Africa, in the daughter language of Dutch, Afrikaans). We had the incredible opportunity of spending three days in the mountains at the Groot Winterhoek Wilderness area retreat when we first arrived in the country. I literally had the time of my life, and I had never experienced some of the emotions before the retreat, hence the song lyric for this post. :)
The first time I truly felt time stop was during "solo" time up on the mountain during sunset. Before sunset, our group practiced an Educo Africa tradition by gifting a journal to another person. Once everyone received a journal, we were invited to choose a place to sit, and reflect upon the "things we left behind." This question can be a deep question, or it can be answered on a materialistic level. My mind started racing, and deep thoughts about the meaning of life, love, happiness, and my past were forming faster than I could organize them. Everything came so fast, I decided to lift up any past worries, or struggles to the sky, and to write down the "things I wanted to take with me."
This is a short laundry list of my ideas to change the world I took with me:
1. Provide education for EVERYONE
2. Make healthcare accesible for EVERYONE
3. Ensure comfortable housing for EVERYONE
4. Live in a world in which the only race is the "human race"
I know these ideas are very broad, but I was trying very hard to picture a world without so much greed, selfishness, anger, and hate. After being at the District 6 museum today, I realized these changes may take 1,000s of years, but it is worth it. Right now, I plan to soak up as much information as I can about living in a community and the power of forgiveness while I'm living in South Africa. This country is beautiful, and as of now my truth is only comprised of the things I have learned and been exposed to in the past. I am very excited about my transformation into a global citizen and I can't quite imagine what is yet to come in the future for myself, my generation, and OUR world! <3
Hana: It sounds like you are "Having the time of your Life..." The retreat seems to have gotten everyone off to a good start - lots of interesting comments on the blog. I'll be checking the blog regularly.