hey everyone – if you’ve been wondering why i haven’t done lots of updates lately, it’s because i was getting ready for what is the most significant voyage for me since 33 years ago, when i took my 4-year-old son and emigrated from germany to paraguay. my mother is moving into a seniors’ home and i’m going to germany to help her. such a big change. she is getting older and ready to let go of a lot of things. she will move from a huge apartment in which she has lived for 52 years into a tiny little apartment, fortunately just minutes away from it. hopefully we’ll find a good home for my father’s gazilion pieces of artwork which he left behind. going to germany is always very strange for me – so well known yet so far away, and not just geographically. usually when i come back from germany i’m utterly exhausted emotionally. my hope for this voyage is that i will go there with a servant’s heart and deal with all the physical and emotional work there happily and lightly, that i will have lots of deep and loving connections with my mother and dear friends and family, and that i will not have any panic attacks on the plane. fortunately, capt. tom is helping me with the latter. so – i’ll be away for four weeks. don’t know how much opportunity i will have to blog. let’s see, shall we? i’m sailing into a lot of unknowns …