The Path Reveals Itself...
This morning Hassan made us coffee and tea, which were ready for us when we appeared at 7.30am... We had a last photo call with him pouring the tea in traditional style from a great height...
We had said goodbye to Nadia and Lamina yesterday, but ten minutes before we left, the doorbell rang and there they were, having sped in early on Nadia's moped so that they could say another farewell to us...
Yesterday was a busy last day, and our grand finale was a very enjoyable supper with Jamal in the main square; the sound of drums and Marrakech nighttime life all around us - and the street cats - at one time we looked down and there were five or six at our feet...
We returned to Riad Saba bearing Moroccan pastries to share with Hassan...
Jamal acted as our translator and our go between, fluent in Arabic and English... A late night evening of tea and the delicious delicacies with our new friends, and the definite promise of returning to this lovely land....
The day had begun with a run around the park, three laps... A bright fresh day, football games on four different pitches, the camels waiting...
I had a plan to run fast up the long straight, with trees either side, each lap...
On the first lap Anadi joined in, but he said that as he ran he had thought. 'why am I doing this, nothing is chasing me' and so he thought better of it...
I like to run fast, I like to see how fast I can run...
A lifelong love 'Daddy time me, time me' - as I raced around our garden as a little girl, trying to run it faster than the time before....
And I am free again, just to see, like I did back then...
I am free of being trapped by any plan. There is nothing wrong with a plan of course... I have run some great races off the back of a schedule...
I like Matt writing down the 'Shore method' exercises for me to carry out, and I have of course, within me, a lifetime of ideas about interval training and running...
So in truth I no longer need a plan... The running plans me now, and I feel free; even knowing what day of the week it is, is no longer important, other than to honour the days my clients and I are meeting or emailing or talking on the phone...
Or the day we are meant to catch a plane... It helps to know these things...!
But the trap of the days, the time ticking, the got to's and have to's has slipped away, as we have journeyed...
And the running path is revealing itself to me, I turn up and run and my inner voice whispers at the end of a piece of 'hard and fast running' where there is no thought... 'It is still about the running...'
Anadi and I were invited by Jabrane, Jamal's father, for a couscous lunch on the roof of the riad yesterday...
We sat with Maria, his beautiful wife and her colleague Mariana... They are co ordinating and organising a huge art event that is taking place here in Marrakech in just three weeks... The process of bringing it to fruition has taken a whole year...
And we sat also with Jabrane's other guests, a Swedish couple who had just arrived in Marrakech for a three day visit to celebrate a birthday...
We ate delicious food, and talked and laughed together, and then Anadi and I went with Jabrane to talk further in his office..
For many years he worked in hundreds of people's lives, helping them to transform and heal... In more recent times he has built the riad and planted 3000 trees on some land two hours from here...
We talked about our lives, about what oasis our nomadic life will lead us to...
He understood our overriding motivation, which is to clear the way from the inside out...
So that the path reveals itself as we journey...
And will take us wherever we are going...
