It’s a quiet Saturday morning in Asheville. I am enjoying a morning of just feeling more at ease and good in my bones and can’t help but think of the long journey that brought me here.
I have to say, it is good to be in the United States for now and in some ways I am starting to feel at home and appreciating the many fortunate simple things I presently have in my life. But I am also aware that it was my epic journey around the globe that brought me to this point.
I have always loved travel and been drawn to it. A child of the midwest in a community with little interest in international exploration, looking beyond our borders and having an adventure were always things that excited me. If you’ve followed my blog you may know that my 20s brought some unexpected challenges my way and I ended up on the anti-depressant Paxil for over ten years. When I went off of it the withdrawal/discontinuation symptoms nearly flattened me and it took me years to get some small semblance of “I’m alright.”
A few years after this when I began my international journey, I was thrilled to consider something that brought excitement back into my life and truly lit me up and inspired me. At the same time, I was still just a shell of myself and experienced many persistent issues that made daily living and “normal life” hard for me.
So here comes the benefit of my journey. While traveling – my unexpected epic five-year adventure to Germany, France South Korea, Austria & Thailand – lit me up and brought me to life in ways I can hardly express, it was also extremely challenging for me. Daily I was pushed in small and large ways. The beauty of this journey and experience is it forced me to grow and develop in ways that I NEEDED to do to begin to get my life back after the impact of Paxil and also the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. The scared, limited, wounded shadow person that I was after the impact of Paxil withdrawal and other life challenges slowly began to chisel away, shift, develop and take new shape.
And so with my gratitude for a bit of ease and restoration on “home” territory also comes my appreciation for all the excitement, struggles and challenges along the way that brought me to where I am now. A new plateau. I am aware that while I still have my challenges, my abilities and capacities that are serving me now are the fruit of my journey. This growth could have only happened in foreign territory. A life abroad helped me to drop my “regular” paradigm and demanded that I adapt and grow to new ways of being. This ultimately brought me some freedom and allowed me to drop some of the limiting patterns and behaviors locked into and stuck in my more familiar environment.
So if you are someone who wants to travel, should travel, needs to travel but hasn’t for a whole assortment of reasons… just know that it’s possible to travel, no matter what your circumstances. Surround yourself with good grounded people who will support you in this idea. And know that challenges don’t mean travel (or whatever it is you want) is not for you, it just means that overcoming those challenges will be part of the equation. And that’s okay.
Not long before I left on my epic journey I had just begun chanting with the Buddhist organization SGI. I was chanting for true change and growth in my life and that is exactly what I got. Through the excitement and inspiration of my travels as well as facing and working through the MANY challenges I experienced daily, I grew.
Admittedly, I am still under development and my life is still a work in progress. But I am aware that I am in a better place today as a result of my journey.
I appreciate my current location and being back in the US, but I also look forward to cultivating a life where adventure and international life are again a part of the landscape… in my own time, in my own way.
So for today, I am just feeling grateful for and acknowledging the ride, the challenges and journey that brought me to where I am now.
Gypsy Woman 