circumnavigation

selfie in our microbus camper...

Everything was beautiful.

And nothing hurt.

- Vonnegut

As you are reading this i'll likely be somewhere in the air over China, or maybe the Pacific, perhaps the plains states, maybe arriving at the Washington DC airport, perhaps I'm on the long cab ride home. But, hopefully I'll be in my bed...having completed my first circumnavigation of our planet on one itinerary. Yup...all.the.way.around. 

HOME >Norfolk > Boston > Rome > Beijing > Sydney > Los Angles > Washington DC > Norfolk > HOME

It's kinda cool.

The interesting thing is that I had to go all the way around the globe to find the girl in the picture, with the gentle smile, sun-kissed nose and unwashed (7-days!) hippie hair full of sand and sea water.

The extra cool thing is that the last time I saw her was traveling around Indonesia for a month last year and it took many weeks of tears and misery for her to decide it was safe to show up. This time, it was only 3 days of tears. 

Three days of shedding layers and layers of stuff...stuff that was mine, and stuff that was not at all mine. Old stuff. New stuff. Vacations are really hard for me for a variety of reasons and my inner monologue...wow. Mostly wow because I could step back and hear myself talking myself through it all (I heard myself tell myself things like, "you are responsible for your own happiness").

I'm now able to articulate that it takes me a while to let go of things...I'm slow to get to sleep, slow to wake up. I don't want to let go of the night, or the day or the stories I cling to in my waking life that don't really have anything to do with my true nature. I'm slow to anger, slow to forgive. I'm slow to bond, but once I do I'm like gorilla glue. I walk slow...always several paces behind Elizabeth in Italy or Bryan anywhere or most anyone everywhere. I guess what I'm saying is I'm slow (you can take this as a declaration or an apology) but I prefer to think of it as a Ferdinand the Bull or Tortoise and Hare kind of thing. Meaning, I get there, I just do it all at my own pace.(Yes, now it all makes sense why I was always picked last for kickball). Mostly, I'm feeling pretty good that the work I do day-to-day to keep myself in a state of flow and joy has shortened my vacation catalyzed shedding period from weeks to days.

And the days that followed were absolute perfection...

Bryan and I had rented this sweet little bright blue 1974 VW microbus camper (Denis!) and road-tripped along the coast north of Sydney. We awoke with the sun and were asleep early due to the shortening days of the coming winter down-under. (we did a hashtag for our trip on instagram: #veedubbonditoburleigh - hopefully you can see them there on webstagram!)

We ate well and lightly, drank tons of water and barely any wine, he surfed and I did an unbelieveable amount of restorative yoga (i.e. one pose for 10 minutes and then about an hour of savasana! all.day.long). I saw dolphins playing in waves, howled with dingo, got to pat a koala, fed sweet little wallabys, got crabby with the lorikeets, saw wild cockatoo, sat around campfires, got into the natural rhythms of my body...remembered how adaptable we are, and how little I need to be happy. Like deep down to my core happy and awake.

I am so grateful to my girls here for keeping my little corner of the squam universe running smoothly...I am so grateful that Bryan chose to share this life journey with me (and proud of him! he did HUGE things in Sydney at the book launch. He was totally out of his comfort zone and he killed it!)...I am so grateful to his Dad for making the trip possible for me...I am so grateful for wild creatures and starlight, crazy sunsets and instant coffee...and I am so grateful that I get to come back to a gig that I love and that in just a couple of weeks I get to SEE so many of you at our June session.

I hope that Spring has been good to you, it feels like I've been away a long, long time and I'd love to know what awakenings you've had with this new season...

xo*m

Oh! and if you haven't seen already...we have a gorgeous new offering in the Squam store...leather bracelets inscribed with sweet soulful messages...and be sure to check out Sarah Ahearn's new online workshop Pages & Paint!