Dear Lord, this is happening.

You guys this is happening. What is this?

I haven't even left yet. It's the night before, and this feels surreal. Like I'm going to be gone. For a month. I'm kind of saying goodbye to my nice laptop and to my bed. I will miss you, Normandy (yes that the Laptop's name, because of course it is), and I will miss you, foam mattress topper. I will miss the privacy of having my own room.

Anyway the real reason I'm posting isn't all that, it's that there was a section I forgot to get to in that last post, and wanted to share. And that is prayer:

A lot of the time people ask things like "how can I pray for you" and that is an amazing question. And I wanted to write down here, in ink - er, digital space - my prayers for this trip.

First and foremost, that I am prayerful. I am, I will be the first to admit, NOT a prayerful person. Don't take this post as a "this is something I always do" because it's NOT. I'm not a prayerful person. Bu I wish I was. Because every time I am, the quality of my life - my attitude, my joy - goes up. By a lot. It skyrockets. But I still manage to somehow VERY RARELY let that happen. I am about to be travelling alone for a month through several beautiful countries. I pray most of all that through thick and thin, through fear and through beauty, through history and modern life, through panic and loneliness and confusion and through gasps of joy and squees of delight, that I am prayerful and considerate of God's plan and will and role and love and power. For me, and for all those whose stories made the history (and at time the fiction!) of the places I see real. I want to be mindful and prayerful, because I haven't been. And this is worth it.

Second I hope that I can honestly relax, and feel the freedom I talked about earlier - let myself be free. Right now, the night before, I'm super worried. I have this thing where NO MATTER what the plans are - no matter how awesome - the day before I spend the whole day NOT wanting to go. Like nope, changed my mind, not worth it. Let's stay home and make tea. I'm hoping that that doesn't come back throughout this trip. This whole thing really is INSANE.

Third, general travel safety of course - several of you are concerned about my lack of weaponry. I'm not a fan of running afoul of customs officers and I have no idea what the view of weapons are, but honestly? Weapons are only good if they are at hand, and I don't think I will want to go around carrying one my whole trip. That said, general prayers for safety never go awry. I'm not worried but I'm also not there yet. Mostly I pray that the hostels I picked are good, and that my 3 overnight train rides go ok.

Fourth, general well being. I very VERY often get sick (a cold/allergies) when I travel and that would SUCK. I also just don't know where to get basic things like food, medicine, or even cash in most of these cities! Also I will obviously be lugging around a VERY heavy backpack and walking a lot and don't know how well I'll sleep and all those things too. My back and my legs are already tired just from life in general. I'm really hoping they don't give out on me now. Pray my shoes serve me as well as ever on this front too as I'm only bringing the one trusted pair. 

I guess that's it for now. I should sleep. Not sure I can. If I sleep this will be real. I don't think I'm ready for that. Pray I can wake up and get going without too much stress. I'm making myself get a SUPER EARLY bus to London (where I will catch the bus to Paris) because I'm paranoid. I will spend almost all of tomorrow on a bus, which does not sound fun. But after THAT hopefully everything will be better.

This is crazy.

I really need prayer on that first point.

Thanks again for reading. 

Rissa

Praise God from whom all blessings flow, praise him all creatures here below, praise him above ye heavenly hosts, praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.