Who is bored out there and totally fed up with staying at home? I guess you are not alone. A few billion people feel the way you do—and I do too. I have been in isolation since the end of February. Even though I find it hardest to not see my son and daughter or our friends. To look at our huge, very long and very beautiful wooden dining table in the garden that was built by our son with the help of a carpenter (well, actually quite the other way round…) to entertain friends and family—and it now sits lonely and unused, surrounded by mountains looking rather sad.
But there will be time to celebrate again. But not quite yet. We have to sit tight, even if we are no longer motivated to do so. But what is it, that you care about the most? Is it the freedom to go and do whatever you want? Or maybe just physically meet your family and friends and hug them? Are you bored with your own company – or do you feel miserable to be stuck with your family?
I guess all is ok, and maybe you feel all of the above at times. To sweeten your time, of course, I would say: go and read through the Intuition Guide I have sent to you, or download it here again:
It is filled with tools to integrate into your life that really make a difference, once you start to use them.
If the time gets tough, the tough get going (love the song and love the movie Easy Virtue where it is the final song) Another thing you could do while sitting at home is watch that! Jessica Biel is a joy to watch in good old England.
So again, lovely, when the times get tough, the tough get going. It has been swirling around my head for a while now. I wonder how you feel about it. Is there anything that has been on your mind lately? A “thing” you feel pulled to start, end, begin or take up but don’t really know how? Please let me know, I would love to hear all about it!
At times like these where the world seems upside down and nothing is like it used to be, many of us feel that pull towards stepping into action. Stand up and actually change things in our lives, in our community or as a whole. There is no better time than now to get going.
So, what is the most important goal that you want to accomplish one day? Just hit reply and let me know.
Caitlin is a dear friend of mine and her biggest goal was to write and publish a book. This is not a promotion nor do I make any money with the link below! I just wanted to share this amazing book with you. Sometimes dream do come true and I hope you will be one of the toughs that get going too!
And she did! She released a new book of essays this week that I want to share with you! It’s about all the mistakes we make in love, the reality of personal growth, and what it looks like to let go of what hurts to move to the other side of life, joy.
I wanted to be supportive and download it, expecting to find it really enjoyable. But I can’t tell you how absolutely funny, hilarious, witty and joyful it is to read it. This book made me stay up far too late and irritated my lovely dog Coco, cause I kept on laughing out loud in all hours of the day (and night). Best you read some parts of it yourself, right here, just to lighten the mood a bit while you are at home…
The bus in Lake Titicaca:
Mentally, I was in a kind of transitional place. I felt really far removed from my life back home. Yet little things could still bother me. I guess distance gave me a bigger perspective. And I could see a lot of things more clearly—which caused some pain, but it was really just growing pains.
I was able to jet over to Lake Titicaca too. And by jet, I mean take a Peruvian bus – which was not a highlight. On the overnight ride to the lake, I was lucky enough to get a seat next to a broken window. Sleeping on a bus with the cool mountain air howling in your face is quite soothing. I think my seat was on a jet stream.
On the way back I was even more fortunate because this time my seat was conveniently located on top of a heat vent! While my organs slowly roasted, there was a salesman who stood in the aisle and presented a lengthy pitch for an Inca-inspired herbal weight loss supplement. If I never get on a bus in South America again, I will have lived a good life.
The coca tea:
A guy I met in a cafe in Cusco was telling me that the energy was different in Machu Picchu. That people came from all over the world just to soak it up.
I was minding my own business, sipping my 19th cup of coca leaf tea (it was becoming a problem). I honestly tried to avoid talking to random men, seeing as I was alone and didn’t want to advertise that to many strangers. I shifted my hand so the Claddagh ring on my wedding finger was visible as we talked, a signal I hoped would let him know that I was not “available” (even though I was).
He looked me in the eye when he said:
You know, there’s a special energy there, especially right now. 2012 is a very important year and this is a big energy shift, especially in the next few days. You’re going to feel some pretty cool things when you go there.
I nodded and thought to myself: This man has lost his marbles.
It wasn’t until a few days later, when I was sitting there, on a rice terrace in the farming section of Machu Picchu, that I realized he was right. I did feel something different.
Running into a flock of sheep in Peru:
Peru was a country with so many beautiful things to see if you had the money to do so (like many places). Many people that lived there did not. There was so much need there, as there were in so many other places around the world. Need for safety, security, homes, money.
I was doing what I could to fulfill those needs at the new place I’d started to volunteer at, a home for teen moms in the San Jeronimo neighborhood, a solid 45 minutos commute from downtown Cusco. The ride was just a straight shot down the Avenida del Cultura with one to fifty-five pauses, depending on how many BAJAS! we had. It was kinda difficult to tell where your stop was because there weren’t many landmarks. It made things exciting!
I can still picture all the locals’ faces when they’d hear a random, soft-spoken baja, said in a Chicago accent, coming from the back of the bus. They’d all look perplexed as a random white girl was getting off in a random neighborhood, alone. I never felt unsafe because people were usually just so confused to see me in a place not many other (blonde) tourists went.
The home for teen moms was on a calle tierra. On my first day there, I took a cab because I wanted to be on time. My cab driver and I got completely lost as I used a mix of charades and Spanglish to direct him around dirt roads with no signs, using the directions I’d been sent in Español.
The simpatico cab driver had to get out of the car and remove a few rocks from the middle of the calle tierras. At one point, I’m not kidding when I say, we had to ask an old man and his flock of sheep for directions. I couldn’t contain my laughter, how did I end up here?! Luckily, we eventually spotted the purple gate (with painted cute little angels).
The book is called EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN and takes the reader around the world, from India, Peru, Bali, Vietnam, Ireland, Costa Rica, Iceland, and the Faroe Islands—as well as to places with the most vulnerable amongst us, like a nursing home and a food pantry.
This book will make you feel like you have traveled the world and at the same time, gotten closer to your own soul. When you read this book, you are nurturing yourself as well as making a new friend. It’s a fun, lighthearted adventure.
The BEST part is 50% of all proceeds will be donated to a home for teen moms and their children in Cusco, Peru. They have been hit very hard by the pandemic and had to close the store they normally sell goods in which finances the home.
Get your copy here: https://amzn.to/3dhwWyf
If you would like to read on, here’s an excerpt from the intro:
I’ve found travel to be a tool for compassion, a cure for ignorance, and an initiation for awakening. My greatest adventures consisted of exploring three types of places:
1. the spaces on the outskirts filled with the most vulnerable people, the ones who have been pushed to the edge of “society”
2. ancient sacred sites, built all over the world, all (magically) aligning with the stars
3. the dark transitions that we all try to avoid, like heartbreak, sickness and death
I’ve found that outside the rules and amongst the poor and the ancient and hidden in the dark, the truth lies snugly, waiting to be recovered and remembered.
Along the way, I discovered pieces of who I am in others. Like orphans, unwed mothers, remote villagers, the homeless, immigrants—people who have something money can’t buy: integrity and spirit. It shines out of them because they’re not trying to keep up with…anything. They’ve shown me that job titles, diamond rings, and number of followers aren’t what’s truly valuable in this world. Resilience, strength of character and vulnerability are. They are the ones that sparkle and they are sparking change.
Get your copy here: https://amzn.to/3dhwWyf
I hope you enjoy this read as I have, (and still am – I can’t wait to get back to it!) and sending much love to you.
Much love,
Carollyne
