Moving on …

I arrived in Atlanta last evening from St. Lucia. I’m always a little sad to leave my birth country and my family who live there.

The flight to Atlanta was uneventful. I planned to wake up early this morning to go sightseeing but staying up until 2 a.m. this morning put a kink in that plan. I woke up at 8:30!

I spent the day exploring the Martin Luther King Junior historic area. I took the Frommers walking tour, stopping at the Sweet Auburn Curb Market for lunch. My exploration of the area took most of the day.

The Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site and the King Center are both excellent museums. I found myself teary eyed as a walked through the museum and saw the history of Atlanta, the south and African Americans in images and objects.

I’ve read about slavery and the resistance to the oppression of slavery but the history really seemed alive today. I was struck again, as I have often been, by the eloquence and wisdom of Dr. King and many of the other African-Americans who struggled for freedom, for democracy, for justice. I realized how important Dr. King’s faith in God was to his struggle, and how it fueled his courage. The whole concept of confirmation, that God is merciful and helps us if we submit to his will and when we strive to serve the greater good of humanity resonated with me today. The message that I most try to apply to my life though is to make the right decisions, one that will foster the advancement of society and humanity at every opportunity. Every moment of our lives affords us opportunities and we have to weigh those opportunities against the impact not just on ourselves, but on the other interconnected souls in this world.