Spirit Ignited

Land of Dracula, Gypsies, and Mt. Omu. Two of these images roused my curiosity. The third, nestled in the mighty Carpathians, ignited my spirit.

I flew to Romania on the wings of my mom’s dream. Her desire to help the children of Romania touched me deeply, and I was here to bring that unfulfilled wish to life. Yet amidst the legends and enchanting scenery a dream of my own was born. Gazing up at mountains that seemed to dip their peaks in the waters of heaven set ablaze the embers that had been smoldering in my soul for months.
Inside the musty walls of the Children’s Hospital my mom’s love poured out of me onto the fragile babies. Yet while I cuddled and cradled Romania’s faces of innocence my own reverie glared at me from all corners of this majestic valley.
As a morning haze hovered over cobblestone streets steaming with history, I boarded a train that would carry me from the belly of Brasov to the alpine village of Busteni. An hour later my feet stepped on a dirt road at the edge of town and my eyes grabbed hold of the image my heart had been hungering to see. The sky was painted a postcard blue, and in the near distance were the towering peaks of the Bucegi Mountains.
As I stood at the foot of these giants imbibing their magic, a shiver ran through my bones. The mountain air woke up my hope, as well as my fear. In the months leading up to this trip my body slowly began breaking down. Mt. Omu had gone from dream to fantasy. Now here it was, staring back at me. I felt my mom’s spirit and trusted that today it would become a reality.
I let the forest swallow me up as I meandered through landscapes only seen in the fairy tales of my imagination. Surrounded by the purity of nature I experienced intense feelings of both connectedness and solitude. My energy soared with each step over wind chiseled boulders, through green pastures dotted with sheep and up cliffs that overlooked the sleepy town below.
Once I could go no further I followed a dusty path to a rocky outcropping. On the precipice, my eyes were flooded by sunlit marshmallow clouds washing over the mountain like waves caressing the shores of infinity. I let out a cry from the purest place of my soul. I had arrived!
I came to Romania physically broken, carried only on the wings of a dream. I silently thanked my mom for bringing me to this place where heaven met earth. As my body stood firmly on the peak of Mt. Omu, my spirit soared high above the clouds that hugged both mountain and man.