The Place Where Nomads Go

My boxes are still in a storage unit in California.

I flew out to NYC last Saturday, and successfully moved into my apt, however. The boxes I shipped in July actually did not get sent. $500 to have them stored for two months, 20 minutes down the road from my house. Needless to say, there is some hell to pay.

Luckily, the past week has left me with a full heart - a heart full of joy, excitement, hope, and laughter. There were a few items on my brainworry list: roommates, weather, colleagues, administration, finances. These topics manifested themselves in various detailed form: Will my new roommate talk in her sleep as well? What am I going to do about running in the infamous NYC humidity? How does my loan refund get deposited? Where am I going to find a good burrito on the East Side?

Amazingly, all these questions were resolved in a matter of 48 hours. :)

As for starting in the program, I know I promised to write all about it, but there is too much to say about the experience of meeting your collective soulmates, after waiting for years to discover something you couldn't exactly define until you found it. You have to forgive me for the next portion of this blog, because I'm writing on the fumes of a residual life high. Ahh...actors.

I've come up with a little story that will best sum up the experience as a whole of this week's journeying:

A nomad wanders around in the desert by herself, meeting people along her various walks of life, scrounging for what she can, and surviving how she will. She lives her life from one adventure to the next, and though sometimes feels pressure to find a town and settle down, something in her soul tells her to keep searching.

She hears of a place where nomads go, and decides to venture forth to see what is there.

When she arrives, there is a group of people who have also wandered like she, scrounged for what they could, and survived how they had. They had lived from one adventure to the next, and though they too had felt the pressure to find a town and settle down, they knew they were to keep searching for something. They too had heard about the place where nomads go, and as these nomads suddenly find each other all in the same place, they recognize that they have found what they did not know they were looking for all this time. They cannot place the feeling, but something is happening. They know it by the heart's leaping, and by the spirit's trumpeting.

The first day they feast together, and there is an excitement in the air that cannot be satisfied, and as they look at each other, each nomad taking in the other's countenance, they see there reflected pieces of themselves. And the longer they stare, and the more stories they share, the harder it becomes to distinguish between the nomads and the self. (When one has been wandering like only a nomad can wander, it is quite unsettling to discover that there are others like yourself.)
They agree to feast again on the second day.

The second day arises and the feast they have then heralds a new sentiment: terror. Each nomad realizes that the life they knew is on the brink of extinction. Studying each other for a while, sensing bubbles of doubt in their throats and weights of fear in their hands, they discuss what to do. A passerby would find this scene most peculiar - a collective of nomands, standing close in a circle, not knowing if they should stay in this place or run for their lives.
Suddenly, a voice breaks through the thick fog of panic and it tells them to be kind, respectful.
Engage in a dialogue, it urges. Take care of each other, is the echo.

They set up camp, sharing what little they have, and exchanging each fear for a sprinkle of hope. Bit by bit, they begin to breath again, and the breath becomes a sigh, ebbing in with the new life of their collective. They talk long into the night, and under the twinkling smiles of the stars, they discover their home in each other. They fall asleep, side by side, and a dream hangs over their heads like the cool shade of a plum tree.

When they awake, they will see each other in the dawning, look happy, and say,

Good morning, I am excited and terrified.