Day 197 in my meditating my way back into the world and toward Mickey

Well, it is the Saturday evening after a week’s vacation.  I keep telling myself, “I have one more day of vacation; then it’s back to work on Monday morning.”  But…I will go to worship tomorrow morning AND I will even go early to hear a guest speaker.  His name is Aziz Abu Sarah, and he is a Palestinian living his life as a tour guide in the Holy Land, working for peace.  See his bio below:

• Aziz Abu Sarah is the Co-Executive Director of the Center for World Religions, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution (CRDC) at George Mason University, and he is a 2014 TED fellow.  He has over ten years experience in tourism management and fourteen years of peace building expertise, and during his time at CRDC has forged new approaches in combining conflict resolution and business. His visionary work in tourism, intercultural dialogue, and peacebuilding led him to be named as one of the “500 Most Influential Muslims in the World” by the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Center in both 2010 and 2011.  In addition to his work in business and peacebuilding, Abu Sarah has published articles in the New York Times, the Jerusalem Post, the Daily Star, and has appeared on CNN, Fox, and Aljazeera as an expert on Middle Eastern affairs.
  

Impressive, right?  He led a tour group from our church last October in Israel and Palestine.  If you live in the area, come on over to St. James tomorrow at 9:30 am or 3:00 pm to hear Aziz.  He is quite a guy, I’m told.

Anyway, that aside, I will be back at the church tomorrow, which just happens to be where I work.  But I am ready.  I really needed this week away.  A week of rest and taking care of home/personal business.  So my task for today is meditation and preparing myself to re-enter the world.  I had 8 blissful days in which I didn’t even leave my house.  I had all the down time I needed, and now I can go back to work and the world refreshed and ready to re-engage.

Meet you at the Kingdom!

BTW: The Discovery Channel is showing Disney programs again today.  More opportunities to get fired up for our trip.