Finding Home
Another year is wrapping up, with a new one around the corner. While in truth, one day just rolls into the next, many of us use this time of year as an opportunity to take an accounting and to reflect, as well as to vision forward.
I know I have 'disappeared' for a space of time and haven't posted or put out a blog in quite a while. I have been on the road for just over a year now, taking a wander year and "walking my talk." I have been following the breadcrumbs of my life back to the beginning, visiting old haunts, seeing old friends from decades ago, and remembering clearly who I was as a girl, a young woman ... visioning my transition into the future.
The experience has been eye-opening in many ways. I have criss-crossed the country, been to Europe and back, and in the process have distanced myself from some past patterns and habits that defined the last two decades of my life. These helped me to accomplish many things, but also held me back in some respects from being fully expressed in the world. I find myself now standing firmly in the present, on the threshold of the next phase. I know that from here, I can go anywhere, and be more choiceful about what I add back in, as I begin the next arc of my life.
I have found that home isn't necessarily a 'place' but a state of being. I have taken it with me, across country, overseas and back again. Home lives both within myself and in the eyes and hugs of beloved friends, as well as those of strangers. I have found that people are happy to connect if one is open and curious; that change is constant and that often my memories of a place or time are far more alive for me than the present moment I am standing in.
I am reminded that all places and people are connected, and that seemingly random occurrences are probably not random at all. And I have, surprisingly, found much hope, despite all that is happening in the world today. I have encountered and had conversations with so many 'random' people, from all walks of life and from multiple countries. They have inspired me. They have made me laugh and have brought me to tears. I have known for a long time that it is our humanity that connects us - that we all want similar things at root - love, connection, safety for our children, food on the table, shelter. That if we would open ourselves and be curious about others, we would find that our differences are resource, not a source of division. To actually take the time to go out and live that knowledge again has opened me, changed me.
I encourage you as this old year turns, to become curious again. See people and situations through new eyes. Don't assume that you know what is going on with someone or what their stance is. Try to find hope in what surrounds you, and feed that. Find and celebrate what you are grateful for. Remember who you were, and who you are, and take the best of that into the new year with you. Find home and live there.
