It was offered,
even before I dreamed it possible.
It was gifted,
even before I realised I accepted it.
It was held,
even before I knew I was holding it.
It was shared,
even before I knew how to offer it.
It was embodied,
even before I knew how to hold it.
It was sacred
even before,
and more so now
It was.
And it is.
And it will be,
Forevermore.
Mt Titlis, Switzerland. 10,000 feet above sea level.
The Highest point we travelled.
Aird Uig - Isle of Lewis - Outer Hebrides, Scotland.
The Most Northern point we travelled
We have arrived.
At the end of our travelling journey.
At the end of the farthest point - and in these particular photos the furthest - both in height and in distance from home - of this particular journey.
We have travelled to cities and country sides
Loughs and Waterfalls.
We roamed through country side where boundaries were nil
and others where the right to roam was restricted.
We travelled up mountains that were 10,000 feet above sea level
And walked through a glacier that was 20 meters below the ice.
We saw loughs where ancient stories began,
and stone circles where ancient time stood still.
We travelled via plane and car, ferry and train,
we walked and roamed, climbed and journeyed
We got lost.
And found our way home.
We met with family
We met with friends
We met with tribe.
And we stayed with those that held our hearts and nurtured our soul.
And now,
our journey has come to an end,
and we are home.
HOME
“Is home where you left, or is home where you travel to?” (anon)
I went away, and yet I was at home
I came home, and yet when away I was at home too
How does one hold that when one finally comes home?
How does one live that when one finally comes home?
How does one integrate that when one finally comes home?
I wonder.
I just wonder.
I am sad to leave landscapes that my heart adores - England, Ireland and now Scotland.
I am sad to leave the people who live here, not knowing if I will ever see them again. While of course we can chat, write and see each other via technology, yet that hug, those unlimited cups of tea, those pauses in the day when silence enfolds us and in that enfold more is said and felt than words can convey.
Travelling does that.
It opens your heart to people
and places
Some
You will see again
Some
You only hope that you do.
That’s the magic of travelling - the people you meet along the way.
That’s the magic of travelling - the stories you hear along the way.
That’s the magic of travelling - the emotions you feel along the way.
Maybe it is how these images and stories,
Visions and moments in time gently or otherwise land
Maybe it is all of this,
that will help the journey home.
Right now though I feel as though I am at a threshold.
A portal
A liminal place of neither here nor there, yet a knowing that I will be grounded here soon enough and be there in dreams and memories soon enough.
I am in a liminal place.
A threshold.
A cross over place that takes the journey and the coming home and invites me to place one foot on each side
and just pause.
PAUSE.
BECAUSE TO GO TOO QUICKLY FROM ONE PLACE TO ANOTHER WILL BE TOO HARSH, TOO QUICK, TOO STARTLING.
To pause here at the threshold is to honour the journey
and at the same time
honour the home coming.
To pause is to honour how I am feeling
and to give words and moments of silent memory to those feelings.
To pause is to close my eyes and see and smell and taste and touch the many different sights and sounds and emotions that I felt when away,
to hold them tenderly and gently like a drifting yet very tangible dandelion seed.
To pause is to lift my feet and to place them in the MIDDLE space between Here and There
and to pause here too.
Sometimes being in the MIDDLE is all one can do for a while.
A neither here nor there space
a neither forward nor backward space.
(And I wonder, in my case, maybe that is the importance of jet-lag too, to be in the middle space of here and there)
So to sit in the Middle space of Here and There
Is to sit
and listen
and be.
Travelling allows and invites change.
How do I wish to take that change with me when I fully step over the threshold?
How do I wish to be when I fully step over the threshold?
Travelling allows and invites a new way of looking at things.
It invites a new way of viewing the world
A new way of viewing ones self.
What do I wish to leave behind?
What do I wish to take home?
What do I do with the wisdom I take home?
Ahh, travelling!
It allows and invites an exploration of self.
It opens the heart to other people and places,
and in that exploration of other people and places
is a deep exploration of self.
I wonder, has that ever happened to you -
When you have travelled somewhere - particularly to the places where your heart has such a profound connection - and very soon you know you have to leave that landscape/that place/those people to come home again?
What was that like for you?
What did you do to ease the transition?
What did you do to help ground you in the goodbyes and in the welcome homes?
I wonder what was/is it like for you - When you travel and go places and then you return to your once oh so familiar place?
What was/is it like for your physical, emotional, mental and spiritual energies?
What was/is it like for those to whom you returned too?
And what was/is it like to go back to the role/s you held/had before you left? Did you go back to those roles - maybe you did…maybe you didn’t.
I would really love you to write to me and share in the comment section your experience of travelling and how you navigated those thresholds, sharing your advice with others who may also be on the travelling journey.
Until next week,
May you journey well in all that you do.
ps/ At this moment in time I am only offering 1-1 healing and spiritual mentoring sessions on Thursday evening (zoom/phone only), Friday and Saturdays (face to face and via zoom/phone).
I have however extended my hours to include DAWN HEALING SESSIONS.
Imagine doing a healing session at the natural Thresholds and Liminal Spaces in nature - Dawn (and Dusk!) - The Magic Hour.
When I was away I was still working and at times the time difference resulted in me waking up at dawn to offer an afternoon healing for my clients back home in Australia. What I found was that I really enjoyed giving healing sessions at this time of day. The natural energy resulted in a deeper, quieter, more profound healing session.
Maybe you would like a dawn healing (it maybe a dusk healing for you if you live on the Northern Hemisphere)…ooohhh! how lovely that would be! Both thresholds open, both Magic Hours honoured!
I would love to hold sacred space for you to explore your own inner landscape and the thresholds and liminal places that your own personal journey has invited you to cross.
Feel free to contact me here about a healing session.
Until we meet again,
either in that sacred space,
or next week.
Blessed be.
Mt Pilatus - Lucerne Switzerland. 2023
A wonderful piece, especially for someone like me who has lived in and loved multiple US states and now 5 "foreign" countries. I feel a piece of me is ALWAYS in the middle/in between space. Each place has changed me, so much that I am a total misfit in the US, now (actually I think I always was). Perhaps India and the Tibetan refugee settlements there have changed me most, in so many ways. But the place that calls to me so strongly, which I last saw in 2006, is the UK. The pain for me here is that I feel I am stuck never being able to go there again. I have a work from home income which does not support independent living anywhere, I have 2 cats I am responsible for in the place where I am being given room/board, and am a pt caregiver to my housemates. I am stuck at least for the foreseeable future! So my answer is that I have NOT at all coped with the shifts btwn spaces, even though I try to hold the memories and tell myself nothing is permanent, I am never happy or even satisfied with where I am! Hopefully one day that will change?
This is amazing Sam, thank you for blessing us with these words. I am going to dive in with a comment unrelated to travel and more about life.
I was speaking with some friends today about making changes as I'm preparing to write a series about getting ready to change things in the new year and how to prepare for it. Your words "how do I want to be when I step fully over the threshold' spoke deeply to my soul! Whatever the change may be, whether it's internal or external environment, knowing HOW we want to be when we cross over is so important. Thank you for this reminder.