Well, we’ve been back from our mega-trip for a few weeks now, but it still feels like we just got back, and we still feel vaguely disoriented from time to time.

So… about our recent 6-week “vacation” to visit family in Egypt and India… I’ve wrestled with writing up a “short summary”, but I find that just thinking about writing about it gives me stomach ulcers.

It was a traumatic trip.

Yes, I could write an overview that only mentions the good parts, the highlights of the trip if you will. Especially the wonderful time spent with my sister and her family in the UK. Yes, we could post pictures of the fun times, or the feel-good pictures where we’re all smiling in front of the Taj Mahal.

But I’ve swept baggage under the carpet for many years now, and I’d like to stop doing that. I know firsthand the pain that such unresolved emotions can cause when they manifest themselves at the most inopportune times.

My family, like most families, doesn’t talk about big elephants in the room, the turbulent stories that run violently deep under the smiling pictures - things get bottled up, not talked about, left unresolved, just so that appearances get maintained.

Well, the buck stops here. I’m not about to do that. Several major things happened to us, Alexis and I, on this trip that need to be talked about. We grew a lot closer together, we experienced things nobody has ever written about, and we desperately need to process all that stuff healthily. For our health, especially, it is critical to process some of these things with friends who really know us and love us. For healing, for sanity, for clarity, for peace of mind.

But not online.

Ever wonder about this word “prayer” that people toss around so recklessly?

Sometimes it’s a cue to take a quick nap in the middle of a church service, or sometimes it’s like a hot potato at the dinner table – someone else do it! Sometimes it is long and eloquent and frilly and not really meant seriously, like prayer invocations at graduations and weddings and presidential inaugurations. Sometimes it is kooky, and makes you wonder about people who claim that God tells them strange things.

Maybe you have wanted to pray but don’t know how, and you aren’t sure who to ask about it or how to ask them without sounding odd. Plus, maybe you’re worried that you’ll have to become religious in order to pray.
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