As of today, I have officially spent a full month living away from home. I never saw myself moving away from Malawi – for long or otherwise.
It was never in my plans nor desires. It feels weird (a good kind of weird) to call this place home, and I still shake at the idea sometimes.
I’m finding my footing, making home in this new land. Maybe it’s for a little while. Maybe this place will love me for longer. Maybe Malawi will call me back. I’m taking each day as it comes, holding on to every inch of sanity on my path, and trusting the Universe.
For now, here’s a few details that give me stillness, and below some words; the little things making my world at the moment alright –
***
As you set out for Ithaka
hope your road is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
angry Poseidon—don’t be afraid of them:
you’ll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitementstirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
wild Poseidon—you won’t encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.
Hope your road is a long one.
May there be many summer mornings when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you enter harbors you’re seeing for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfume of every kind—
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to learn and go on learning from their scholars.
Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you’re destined for.
But don’t hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you’re old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you’ve gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.
Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her you wouldn’t have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.
And if you find her poor, Ithaka won’t have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you’ll have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.
***
– C. P. Cavafy 
About the Author
