Malta - The Backstory
It’s been on my bucket list for what seems like forever to travel somewhere off the continent of North America. Believe it or not, I never have. I’ve traveled through nearly every state in the United States (all but North Dakota and Indiana) and much of Canada and a bit of Mexico... but never further. I’m on my third passport, and none of them have ever been stamped! (I traveled in Mexico and Canada back in the day when all that you needed was a driver’s license.) I’d always thought that someday one day I’d travel the distance but it’s amazing just how illusive that someday one day can be.
In the last couple of years I’ve been thinking a lot about this idea of a bucket list. I’d create imaginary timelines in my head and wonder, what would make it on the list if I were only going to live another year? Another five years? Another ten? It seems like it should have been easier than it’s been for me. It seems like a person “should” have dozens (if not hundreds) of things on that list but I don’t. I have barely a handful and even those seem slippery, alternately sliding on and off the list. I’m making peace with that. My bucket list - My rules. It’s organic, my living and breathing bucket list and here are some of the things currently on it:
- I’d like to swim a mile in one direction
- I’d like to see Niagara Falls
- I’d like to spend a night in the Ice Hotel
- I’d like to ride in my friend Bob’s Aircam (it’s “a twin-engine experimental home built aircraft that can fly 10 feet above the tree tops.” www.aircam.com)
- I’d like to write a book
- I’d like to have my own gallery show of photographs (stay tuned...that’s coming up in February in Sacramento!)
- And perhaps most of all, I’d like to travel off the continent.
Back in March, when I was going through a particularly rough time, I serendipitously came across an advertisement for the “Women’s Pilgrimage to Malta Fall Equinox 2012” and thought, why the heck not? Back then, looking ahead at all the medical tests and procedures of PET scans and biopsies and MRI, it seemed like one darn great good carrot... and it has been. In five days I board a plane and head off to another world.
Here is part of the brochure’s trip description-
“Experience the sacred healing presence of the world’s oldest temples through chant, song, dance, ritual and archaeological study. The peaceful, artistic and matrifocal people of ancient Malta left us their temples and symbolic language. And still today these sacred places transmit unique qualities of healing, regeneration and the wisdom of the natural world. The trip will include visits to archaeological sites and museums, song circles and workshops, lectures, special presentations by Maltese scholars and artists, dancing, swimming in the Mediterranean sea, singing in the Hypogeum, and a moonlight ritual at the ancient Ggantija (female giant) temples. The pilgrimage will culminate in a private Autumn Equinox celebration at the beautiful seaside temple of Mnajdra. The Maltese temple builders had advanced astronomical understanding. The temple of Mnajdra is aligned so that on the morning of the Autumn Equinox when the run rises, the sun’s rays enter the temple through a passageway and light the back altar. We will have the extraordinary opportunity to witness and participate in this ancient ritual of renewal.”
I am most looking forward to that “healing presence” and renewal and experiencing the beauty of part of the natural world I have never seen.
More to follow.....
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