Never lose sight of your dreams!

As I ended the phone call with the travel agency, I actually was a bit shaken, asking myself “what had I just done, spending almost all my savings on an impulse?”

It had been over fourteen years since my only journey to Egypt and I’ve always dreamed of going back one day. That is, if I could afford it. I had been there before to work on an exhibit, but this time it would be just for my own enjoyment.

While I had been cleaning up my studio and shuffling through old materials from working in Egypt, I came across my small black notebook of professional contacts. I opened the book and read the words I had written on the inside cover page so many years ago…”Never lose sight of your dreams.” Those words really spoke to me in that moment on that day telling me that now was the time that I needed to go back. My life experiences have taught me time and again that when you get such an intense feeling to do something that you just need to do it. Maybe it was spirit pushing me from the other side and forcing my hand, but regardless the adventure was on.

I realized that spending the vast majority of what I had in savings on this journey seemed a bit insane to my logical mind, yet thrilling to my spirit. Nonetheless, I decided to just let go and not worry so much, trusting that there was a good reason for my action.

I look back at the time now and am so thankful for not overthinking my decision. I was so looking forward to seeing my old friend Michael who has been working on his own archeological site for many years in the Cairo area. He was a good friend at one time, yet we had not stayed in touch over the past nine years. I always envied his lifestyle, working to unearth history in one of the most mysterious places in the world. Maybe that’s why I had failed to do a better job of staying in touch, envious that he was living my dream.

Finding his contact information in my old notebook was truly one of the sparks that had motivated me to make this journey. Although I always figured I could reconnect with Michael someday as he was one of the leading Egyptologists in the world, I found out that was not as easy as I thought. Famous people create layers of people to go through to connect with them if you don’t have their number. There were several numbers I had written down for him in my notebook, but they were no longer connected. I remember thinking I should have tried to find him before making the decision to go, but something told me that I needed to go there now.

Eventually, I remembered that somewhere in my notebook was Michael’s sister’s information. She lived not far from me. He had done a lecture in my city 9 years ago and asked if I could pick him up to take him to the airport from her place when he left Denver. Luckily enough I found it. I called his sister, and I could tell she was really struggling to remember who I was and why was I contacting her. She almost hung up on me twice, not remembering me. Then when it dawned on her and she remembered meeting me years ago she got excited. “Oh, Michael will be so happy to hear from you,” she said.

She told me how much he had enjoyed working with me years ago on some Egyptian card designs and that he felt bad because he had lost my contact information. I was kind of surprised and shocked that she even knew about it.

With Michael’s deep knowledge of the subject matter and my design skills, we were excited about we had created together. It was a fun project that we had hoped would also be rewarding. However, when we had finished that project, it ended up being a dead idea because our potential buyer for our card designs had backed out. As we all know, sometimes things just don’t work out.

As fate, or whatever the magic is that controls our life would have it, finding my notebook and Michael’s sister telling me he wanted to contact me too, seemed very synchronistic. I was so happy to hear this and proceeded to call him from the number his sister had provided. Not even thinking of the time difference and being so excited, I called him in Cairo right away. I heard a very tired and kind of angry voice say, “Hello, who in God’s name is calling me at 3:45 in the morning?”

Damn, I had not meant to reconnect this way, but with caller ID I figured I had better not just quickly hang up like I wanted to in that moment. Then after I affirmed who I was and how I had lost his numbers and had waited so long to reconnect, and telling him several times how terribly sorry I was for calling at such an unimaginable hour, he laughed. The sound of hearing him laugh was a delight to my ears. He said the fact I had found him, had made it a delightful early morning call.

I told Michael that I found him through his sister and he was surprised that I still had her contact information. He laughed and said she has lived in the same family house for over forty years, and never got rid of her land line like so many others have done, including himself.

Michael asked if there was any way I could travel to his place in Egypt sometime this year; he said he would make it worth my while.

For Michael, traveling back and forth from Boston to Egypt for over twenty-six years was just part of his life. Initially, I think Michael might have felt I was lying when I told him I had already made reservations, but he later realized it was true. He had not even asked why I had already made plans to travel to Egypt, although I had previously mentioned to him that it was always my dream to go back.

Michael might have assumed it was no big deal financially for me to make such a major trip with no real reason to do so, except some mysterious impulse to go and go now. I also hadn’t shared with Michael how this journey would drain my financial reserve and how little money I had left. I guess I did not want to seem as poor as I was at the time. I remember getting off that call feeling like something magical had conjured up a kind of miracle of sorts.

The next few weeks were hectic getting my affairs in order to travel. The only person I told about my trip was my son who lives with me. He’s a young adult and he had some real questions as to what in hell made me do this. There was no logical way to explain it. But once he had heard my story of how I had reconnected with my old friend and how he was eager to have me visit, he seemed to accept that maybe my sudden impulse to travel to Egypt was being guided by a greater force.

After my plane took off, I soon remembered how long the flights are there; the layovers in New York from Denver and then again in Paris before landing in Cairo. Sleeping on flights has never been easy for me and this trip seemed even harder because I was so keyed up about even going.

As I got off the plane very tired from lack of sleep, I was also very excited to be back in this magical land I love. I hurried as best as I could to get through customs and catch a cab to my hotel. I had gotten a good deal at a place not far from the pyramids in Giza and knew it would be close to my destination to meet up with Michael if I could.

The next morning, I was so looking forward to seeing and reconnecting with my friend and learning why he wanted me to come that I had forgotten to grab my reading glasses when I left my hotel. With the little sleep I had gotten between the flight, and time changes, my mind was a bit foggy. But it really did not matter; I was back in the land of the pharaohs with all its mystical and historical mysteries.

When I arrived at Michael’s archaeological dig site, I was taken back by how different it looked today than when I had been there fourteen years ago. It seemed much larger and it was very impressive. Michael was in a discussion with someone as I walked up, so I waited for my moment to reconnect and greet him. When he saw me, he ended his conversation right away and approached me with a smile on his face and a warm hug that felt so good after all these years.

My friend spoke of his failed attempts to contact me, something he had shared on our call. I had moved three times since we had last talked years ago, so I understood.

When I told Michael that I wanted to see what was happening here at his amazing site, he replied, “You will, but first you should see something I have for you and I believe it will make your time here even more enjoyable. Please come over here to my shed and I will show you what I mean.”

The shed was still the same small one he had years ago, which made me realize that some things don’t change. He handed me a piece of paper. As I strained to focus on the letters without my reading glasses I could only make out my name on it and something about some business.

“Look at these,” said Michael as he handed me beautiful cards from the images we had created together years ago. “Do you like them?”

I said that from what I could see they looked great, explaining how I had left my glasses behind at my hotel. As he reached into his shirt pocket and handed me his own reading glasses, he said, “Take a real good look.” As I gazed at the cards, I looked back at the first paper and realize it showed my half ownership in a company he created years ago to market our cards.

It was remarkable. Michael had a standing contract with one of the largest distributors in the world for such products and a great contract with another company to print them. He handed me an envelope and explained that when he knew I was coming he had this made ready for me. Inside was a check for $20,000. He said that was just for the first instalment and that I could expect much more at the end of this year and hopefully for many years to follow.

How amazing! Now, not only did I have the resources I needed for my personal financial responsibilities, but also I made plans to stay in Egypt and work with Michael at his site for the next few months. I was spinning with delight that I was actually going to get to do this. Suddenly my mind wandered back to my small black notebook of contacts and I remembered what I wrote to myself years ago, “Never lose sight of your dreams.”