Maria’s trip to India is three days away, 72 hours. We can hardly believe it is here.

Maria is excited about her trip, and well prepared. She is going to Kolkata to teach the victims of sex  trafficking how to make her potholders so they can earn a living for themselves.

She will have a powerful and creative experience there, and so will I, here on the farm. Cassandra Conety will show up Monday morning to feed the animals and do the farm chores, and I will begin work on the fifth chapter of my book “Lessons From Bedlam Farm,” due out in 2018.

I will write it as it unfolds.

The chapter will be called “Left Behind” and will be about my experience being without Maria and alone on the farm once more. It will be about independence, self-reliance, love and spiritual growth.

Love is not about clinging to someone and keeping them near, love is about selflessness, about letting others be all that they wish to be and can be. Of course I will miss her, but she will be back soon enough, with tales to tell and beautiful quilts and potholders to make.

Love is sometimes about staying close, sometimes about being far away. Being alone will bring good things and perhaps, bring up some bad things. A chance to get to know myself and understand where I am now. Maria’s trip is about nothing so much as an affirmation for the way she – we – have chosen to live our lives, the risks we have taken, the great rewards we have been given.

At every step of her life, Maria faced enormous obstacles, and one by one, she has overcome them.

Nevertheless, she persisted.