Sweaty Farewell

Deuces and sweaty farewell to Africa and 150 of the most inspiring changemakers I've ever met. Feeling extra grateful AND I didn't forget the GirlTrek challenge. Here goes, two weeks of Gratitude Confessions: I'm grateful for warm smiles and loving eyes. I'm grateful for good sleep. I'm grateful for dance parties, boundless energy and good wine.

I love the oceans ...and mountains and forests. I'm grateful for women who hold down the fort - generations of them I'm grateful for the courageous women who do not. I'm grateful for R&B music and the singers are still ooh-yehing. I'm grateful for new ideas. I'm grateful for people like Matthew and Benson who work on the front lines of human rights. I am grateful for the bright ones, enthusiasts, risk-takers who fall in love with life over and over and over again. They light me up and inspire me to practice fearlessness. I am grateful for social workers. I love hip hop and the steady, warlike cadence it brings - to animate defiance of injustice worldwide. (I love the relevance of Rihanna's voice ,,,and the way my South African friends pronounce "Fetty Wop") I can imagine a world without diversity and it makes me deeply love those who are NOT like me. The quiet ones, the hustlers, a quantum physicist, an ocean farmer, those with different skin, different problems, different resources, those with nothing, those with everything, those who are sinewy, those who are emaciated, the athletes, the big girls. I will always value the truth and energy and strength that biodiversity brings to forests, even human ones. I'm grateful for clean water. I'm grateful for fast friends. I love dancing - yep, again. I found my natural pace - whirling dervish - and it felt great. I'm grateful for the unconditional love, safe harbor and restoration that my husband provides at home. I'm grateful to know that there are still wild places on the planet. Ones where turtles live on the backs of hippos. True story. I am grateful for the perspective of archeological sites, to witness the context of millions of years of violent and breathtakingly beautiful evolution, helps me to relax a little and just point my life in the most invigorating direction. I'm grateful for whoever built airplanes