No Fixed Address

I am continuously amazed at the varied and diverse opportunities I am discovering on this path. I am learning about myself, discovering new talents, making new connections and maintaining old ones. Above all, I have this unique chance to step outside of my life and look at it from a different perspective. I am no longer an island-girl; I am a nomad. My heart belongs to the world at large and I have slowly begun to follow its desire. (Perhaps you've noticed that the title of my New Town contribution has changed to better reflect my situation). For the last few months, I have been travelling around the Okanagan for family, love, work and curiosity. I spent the majority of the holiday season living in a little cabin with a wood stove. Cooking hearty meals for a crew of lively thespians, I let go of my worldly plans for awhile and lived in the moment. My most pressing concerns were meal planning, the choice between poker or knitting and remembering to stoke the fire in my cabin. If I could continue that lifestyle, believe me I would. However, it is in those brief, but salient branches off the path that often set us back down on more solid ground.

I could have played Texas Hold 'Em every night after cooking all day while I was out at the farm, but I often chose quiet nights beside the fire. Rythmically clicking my double pointed needles, I considered my place in the world and within myself. I knitted hat after hat full of slipped stitches and frayed yarn ends that I told myself I would fix later, until I realized that it was later. And I would never unravel those hats and fix my mistakes. Then, by a woodstove fire that I built up myself from logs that I split, I started a new hat: slowly, purposefully, strongly and attentively. I realized that at some point in my life I learned that mistakes are okay (which they are), but I must have stopped listening after that, because the rest of the lesson is learning from your mistakes and catching them sooner when they happen again. I ended up with a beautiful hat with no (noticeable) mistakes! I was able to let go of some things that I can no longer fix and work more diligently on my present situation.

The whole time I've been happily unemployed, traversing BC and planning my overseas adventure, I've been lacking any sort of routine. A couple of months ago, I found out that bliss-following still requires a plan and now I've learned that it also requires some kind of routine. It doesn't have to be 'go-to-work-go-to-the-gym-then-Survivor-night-with-the-girls', but more of an internal pattern that I can carry around with me. Trying to go to sleep and wake up at approximately the same time; taking a moment to journal every day; yoga; eating well; connecting with friends and family. Take the simple, but important pieces of every day everywhere. This I can do. Live in the moment, but with a plan and a basic pattern to keep my mind, body, heart and soul at peace – wherever I am.