Ciao...Tomorrow afternoon we leave for a drive to Croatia. I am very excited about the upcoming 2 week adventure.
On a more serious note, last summer when I was in Rome; London, Egypt, and Turkey were attacked during my stay and in the week prior to my travel. When I would ride the bus and subway at the most crowded times (the morning and evening) I cannot say I was free from fear. I often said a prayer before and after exiting these modes of transport. With the news in London, many are now very uneasy. This threat has existed for some time, but when we are immediately reminded such as the case last summer, we feel quite venerable and alert.
I ask for you to remember a few things:first, many, many individuals in the world live in constant daily fear whether from civil war, war between countries, natural disasters, diseases and so on. We are fortunate for the most part in America to be free from many of these fears. Yet this fear that has reached our homeland, and is always a threat no matter what you may feel on one certain day, can lead to different outcomes. One possible outcome, you worry, you fret, you waste precious time, your stress level increases or two: you ignore the situation altogether by detaching yourself, or three: you improve your prayer life, you spend time doing the things that make life worth living, and have confidence that if some thing does happen though your life will end on this earth, you have the hope and knowledge that you will join your Creator. I do fear tragedy but I cannot and will not let it rule my life. For some reason I am fortunate enough to have this opportunity to be in Italy, discovering an alternate way of life from the food, to the language, to the scenery, to the people I spend my days with. It is a very nice existance and I do question why I am allowed to have this while many in the world never experience such things.
Yes, I ask for your prayers as I will be traveling internationally. Yes, I ask for your prayers for the people who are directly affected with the fear of the unknown. But mostly I ask God for this fear and other fears in life no matter what they may be, to strengthen our relationship with Him, our very Creator, and for this fear to give us a higher awareness of what we are here for, and how we are spending the time we are given no matter where we may find ourselves.
Ciao for now. Natalie