Travel
“to go from one place to another”
I have been blessed to have traveled around the US, parts of Canada and Mexico, and a couple of countries in Europe. Probably the most profound trip happened in Egypt in early 1999. It changed EVERYTHING for me. Traveling to those other places had similarities that made it easier to get around and explore their sites and cultures as well as gaining a broader view of the world and the people in it.
But Egypt…it was a whole different ball game. Just the mere fact that several times a day, over loudspeakers, we could hear the chanting of their daily prayers. We heard them from our hotel room in urban Cairo (~9million people at that time)…as well as hearing them in the expansive valleys while on a Nile riverboat. I have to be honest, I actually loved hearing their melodic prayers. It gave us moments throughout our day to just pause and reflect…regardless of our different spiritual backgrounds.
The young man who was our guide shared much about Egyptian history, his culture, and his muslim faith while at the same time being open and curious about our lives and life in the US.
Visiting sites that were built so long ago, gave us a reality check on our perspective of the passage of time that can’t be found in America. We go back hundreds of years…they go back thousands of years.
Even geographically, the difference was palpable. Living in the PNW, we have an abundance of vegetation and trees and green! There, everything was varying shades of sandy beige…the buildings, the ground, the ancient architecture…all beige. The only greenery to be found was along the shores of the Nile…and most of it consisted of palm trees and tropical vegetation.
Egypt is also the place that ignited my mandala art career. Every place we went inspired yet another idea for a mandala design. I drew my first one while on that Nile riverboat. Many of my initial mandalas, when I came home, included varying forms of Egyptian symbols. Once that flood gate opened, everything around me became an inspiration for yet another mandala design.
I’m so grateful to have been able to travel like I did…not so much since The Covid. I do hope to go back to Egypt. I want to go in the Great Pyramid which happened to be closed when we were there…although we did get to go into the middle one…an adventure all on its own…and to be shared another time.
How about you? Is travel a core value for you?
BTW…here’s what it looked like to begin with …
joyfully,
Maureen
The Mandala Lady
🌟 creating mandalas, inspiring peace
About the 2024 Mandalas of the Day
Each day I will create and post a mandala inspired by one of 366 “value” words chosen randomly. The objective being to discover for myself which ones would best represent my core values…and by doing so, I hope it inspires you to determine your own.
Mandala of the Day 