The blog begins.

The blog begins.

The journey began quite some time ago, and is already a great adventure. At this moment, I'm thinking about the thread I threw out to my community some months back: an email informing people that I'd be traveling, explaining my goals, and asking for guidance in any form. An entire web has come back to me from that thread: broad brush guidance and highly detailed tips, names of people to contact and places to go, enthusiasm and faith that buoy me when I am afraid, books to read, and stories stories stories about people's travels and dreams. I have realized what a limited imagination I have, so unable was I to predict the richness of my extended community. I am deeply grateful for this experience of connection, love and wisdom, all so freely shared.

One of the travel tips I received was to "stay safe and have fun." When I first read this, I mistook "stay safe" for "don't take risks," and I thought "have fun" meant "go tourist about." My goals are rather opposite of these, in that I want to risk a leap into the unknown, and I want to connect with people and communities much more than I want to be a tourist. It took a while before I realized that "stay safe" means "take care of yourself," and "have fun" is about everything else. It's a reminder to be awake to life.

Last Friday was my last day at work, following two weeks of intensive good-byes with my clients and colleagues, as well as some days of intensive cubicle cleaning. How can any one person have so much stuff? The process of going through and weeding out, tossing and gifting, re-appreciating and head scratching ("I must have had a reason for keeping this, but I have no clue what it was") has been instructive, to say the least. I notice how easy it is to part with some things, and how difficult to part with others. I notice how my heart stands between the object and the toss in some instances ("This came from -- and connects me with -- a beloved"), and my ego in others ("Surely I will eventually read this book. I just know it.")


Now it is time to take the plunge and hit the "publish" button. To be continued...  meg  2-19-2013