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an important message
The pink envelope was badly damaged when I took it out of its plastic bag. Once again, I hesitated before opening it. Should I wait for a more opportune moment to read it? I examined the letter from every angle and remembered how carefully I had looked after it. After our second failed departure from Morocco, it had been soaked like everything else and had needed an entire day to dry in my cabin. I had feared that the information it contained might fade from the humidity or disappear through wear and tear.
On one side, a handmade drawing by Loïc, scrutinized countless times by my tired eyes, hung as a ceiling decoration in my cabin. On the reverse, the words “Respect the sea and she will respect you” were signed “your loving sister.”
Glued, unglued, dampened, dried, slipped into a Ziploc bag, then glued back to the ceiling of my cabin countless times, the envelope still carried its original message, handwritten by my sister on Christmas Day. Her instructions had been to open it in case of “interpersonal difficulties.”
And so I ask myself: does feeling alone among five people qualify as an interpersonal difficulty? Clearly, there are many small interpersonal challenges. So I open it.
Thank you, my sister. You cannot imagine how much your insightful words have helped me; I have clung to them like a lifesaver. “Let the dust settle,” you wrote. “Stay patient.” My sister and I share the moon. We feel alone and far apart, yet by finding the moon in tonight’s sky, I feel gently cocooned. I know she too is looking at the moon.
Thank you, Jennifer. I received your email, and it did me a world of good. It is taking me some time to process the fact that so many people are following my journey. As I cannot log on to Facebook to read messages of encouragement, nor access my emails or the comments on my blog, I feel that I exist only here. Please feel free to write to me, all of you; Julie will know which messages of encouragement to forward. I feel cut off from the world, something difficult to put into words. This may offer a glimpse of what I mean: my niece Laurence was born last Wednesday, yet I only learned about it on the Friday of the following week. Even with all this technology, no one can reach me.
Special thanks to Philippe Schnobb for our weekly interviews, which allow me to stay connected with all of you listeners and with a community eager to follow the unfolding of our journey.
