Zest in the maze

Nothing else matters much -- not wealth, nor learning, nor even health -- without this gift: the spiritual capacity to keep zest in living. This is the creed of creeds, the final deposit and distillation of all important faiths: that you should be able to believe in life.~Harry Emerson Fosdick  Chicken Soup for the Soul

I have to admit that I was really able to do nothing properly today. I mean in the end I did do a lot, I managed to get myself out of bed and meet up with students and look busy. I met a friend for lunch and saw my angelic pscychologist Claire, and showed some people from the university the house next door which is empty.

But the whole thing was done in one big haze, I felt like I was crawling through a maze, a passport maze. An all-consuming passport maze.

The big question, what to do, what to do. I called the consulate here- they  want me to write the whole thing down and let them follow up again. I guess I better do that because as of tomorrow I am visa-less. If I can persuade them that this is of no fault of my own, they might not fine me.

What I really want to do is wait for this famous temporary passport  to arrive and get my backside to London as soon as possible and go talk to some sensible person. I can even pretend that this whole thing never happened and just hand in my application again as a normal lost or stolen passport.

It would of course now be Easter coming up and the royal wedding on top of that. Just my luck.

I did have several blessing moments though. I was so exhausted I was happy to find clean clothes this morning and just put on some pink lipstick as an afterthought. I have Mozart horn concertos in the car at the moment keeping me going.

 I met up with a group of students who needed help with a project. As I came in, one boy said to me,

 'You look so full of energy this morning, Miss'. 

My answer, 'You could not be further from the truth Abdullah, but you just saying that has made my energy rise by at least 80 %'

His reply was utterly spontaneous,'That's what I do, boost energy."

I asked,'How do you do it?' ....

'I don't know how, but I just did it, didn't I?'

It was such a special moment, and that little group that were really counting on me for advice and believing that I could give it, gave me the ability  to do just that.

I then went to meet another girl who had text that she needed to see me. I was so surprised when she presented me with a lovely gift of a purply pink scarf with meticulously handworked edges, done by a family member.

It was an uncanny moment, as I had not seen that kind of beadwork before until yesterday. One of Salma's daughter-in-laws was wearing a scarf with similar trimming  at lunch and I admired it.

How unbelievable that the universe would present me with a thing of  beauty similar to that  today.

I was talking to Claire about the passport thing, I was so unfocused, her face was positively swimming in front of me. Her hair looked really bouncy today and I usually  become calm and focused in her presence. But today was truly a fuzzy day. She asked me a few questions about the other facets of my life, and then she said,

 'You are fine, everything is fine, it is only the passport'. 

Yes, that is really true, I am really fine, everything  is fine, it is only the passport.

Now I need to go upstairs and write a paragraph in Arabic about Muscat using lots of adjectives and connectors.

This is a major challenge, but I will do it! I have zest for life!