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I discovered something these past two weeks. Although I don't think I'm a 'selfish' person, my normal, everyday life is definitely 'self-centered'. I make my own schedule, I do what I want to do when I want to do it, I live exactly the way I want with everything in its place according to my whims. Part way into my Nevada visit I realized that I hadn't had any of the 'normal' aches and pains that my body seems to send my way at this time in my life. I pondered on this and began to understand that with my sudden thrust into living with children and dogs seemingly everywhere, all of my priorites had disappeared -- I was far too busy to think about hurting or to even think about what "I" wanted to do each day. There were little, and not so little, people and dogs counting on me and I had literally 'forgotten' myself.
I determined at that time that not only had I traveled to another state - a country away from my own home - I had traveled to a different 'time zone' within myself. I was concentrating on what was best for the 'group'; my goals for each day were only to go with the flow and let others determine each day. Once I realized this I could only embrace it. In a way it was truly a vacation from 'self' and very refreshing!
"The most satisfying thing in life is to have been able to give a large part of one's self to others." - Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
