New Perspectives

It's better than finding $20 in your jacket pocket, or realizing you have un-cashed checks in the back of your wallet, or discovering that Starbucks gift card has a larger value than expected. Oh yes. I'm speaking of unearthing hundreds of MGs of Doxycycl in my bathroom cupboard. While often used as an antibiotic, it's also one of the most common forms of antimalarial medications. As I'll be arriving in a malaria prone country in a month, these pills have an inestimable value to me. They'll help keep my body free of a very nasty parasite and allow me to run around in short sleeves without worry of mosquito bites. So, it was quite lucky to find that one of my sisters had had this drug on automatic refill.

I've found recently, in preparing to go off to Africa, that very different things get me excited now. Stories from people about their own experiences on that continent, encouraging words and prayers, pictures, Meryl Streep playing Karen Blixen... I'm valuing the little things in the back of my bathroom closet, and I believe that's really how it should be.