From adventure to change

So it's been a while and a wild ride of adaptation, new experiences, moving, growing, changing, adjusting and relearning... seems to be the theme for many this year with everything opening up after 2+ years of COVID shenanigans, losses, and stories. Big decisions, big growth, big changes, new avenues and adventures, new beginnings, closing old chapters, managing the emotional, spiritual, physical and mental charge that comes from creating change from within. The deeper I go in challenging my beliefs, patterns, decisions and choices, the more change takes place on all aspects of my life. Choosing to go forward despite the worry that comes from the fear of failure, of change, of challenge, of pain, of discomfort, of fatigue, of others’ thoughts or of what will come out of this, etc. Choosing instead to go forth with attention, focus, courage, care, compassion, curiosity, carefully chosen steps, gentle patience, grace, dignity, integrity, and love... Questioning the what ‘is’ vs. what ‘can be’, giving space for doing, acting but also appreciating, processing, integrating, and synthesizing... allowing the unexpected, unexplored, buried parts of us to shine through the cracks, discovering one’s strengths and shortcomings and where the priorities truly lie. Giving permission to the inner child within myself to play, to dream, to imagine, to fall, to get back up, and to dust off for the next trial... Allowing my future self to consider what it would look like if things were different; that hero self within us that will have known all along that all of this is part of the game of life, there is no success unless life is lived... not about money, fame, fortune or following but truly knowing that you did what makes you happy with fulfillment in service, despite the struggle. And who says it has to be struggle anyways? How about creating more fun, more pure blissful pleasure, more crazy adventures of spirit, philosophizing the mind, pushing the physical limits of your body and all the gymnastics between it…? This is in short what decisions like leaving for an island for an unexperienced diving adventure has done for me, creating a ripple effect of waves in every aspect of life... Breaking expectations, intergenerational patterns, dated patriarchal beliefs, renewing vows within and deciding for different... Knowing it will all turn out just as it should. Traveling is not about just going to a different place and racking up the names of countries visited under your belt; it's not only about seeing the beauty of the world and sitting dumbstruck in awe and astonishment of the vastness of the skies. It is about sharing moments, discovering cultures and lifestyle differences, questioning yourself, reevaluating what's truly needed, valued, wanted, and deciding what the trajectory might look like, but allowing the winds to blow you where they will because you know you've got this no matter what. It's about reviewing your unquestioned standards of life, the expectations, the lust for momentary comforts. It's about allowing yourself to invent new parts of yourself and perhaps disconnect and renew with others and yourself. It's about the breaks in time where too much traveling makes you realize grounding is essential in our world today. Not sure I'll ever find fully what I'm looking for outside of myself, but I know I'll focus on creating from within. Expand, choose, grow, do, meet, encounter, learn, share, change and then change again, but never stay in one spot for too long...