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.
Firstly, I really appreciate that you "dive in with a comment about life"...ohhh that in and of itself makes writing here on substack all the more worth while. Diving in with a comment about life!!! I love that! Please feel free to just dive in anytime.
Secondly, I am honoured that my words spoke deeply to your soul. Thank you for sharing what they meant. I too agree that whatever the change maybe it is HOW we want to be when we step over that threshold that becomes important. What legacy do we now wish to leave behind, what footprints are we now treading, what words, actions, reactions are we now considering...
I loved this Sam! I have had longings to go to Ireland for awhile now, recognizing that is home in so many ways even though I have never been there before. (In this life anyways). Scotland too, even though I was there when I was 21. Yet the place that continually calls to me is Kauai. I have been visiting the islands since I was 18. My parents ended up living there for close to 35 years. Home in so many ways. Now that they have passed away, I have not set my feet upon Kauai's sands for four years. The longest time I have gone!
I always feel so much joy when the plane lands and the doors open. That is when I meet the tropical air, before I even leave my seat. Then when the plane is going down the runway as I leave, I cry tears of grief. Kauai is home, and where I am now is home. It truly is liminal.
I can relate so much to the liminal...to the places where one is home and so is the other. Where one takes your heart and holds it, your soul even, and then the other holds it in another way...maybe a ying and yang? Maybe a male and female and in the liminal there is the balance...the child is born.
It is Beltaine here. The energies of a Child/Mabon being born. The energies of The Moon and the Sun coming together. As I write this I feel that maybe the places where I have been have and are birthing a Creative Child (Force) within me that is needed at this time in this place where I currently call home.
Maybe that is the liminal place...the birthing...the holding...even the dying...so that we can be in many places of "home" all at once..
I love this gorgeous reflection of travel Sam and there are some of the places that my soul yearns to visit like the Hebrides. I have spent so much time travelling in an inner world that the outer world now seems so vast! Strangely or not one of the places I've felt most at home is South America, I really felt like I had travelled to a culture that was both familiar and mine. Equally Derbyshire in the UK, which is much closer! It's that pull that you can't ignore, it's that whisper in your ear that there is something for you to discover. Where you follow the trail of your roots until you find at the other end a place, a sacred site, a feeling of belonging. We are blessed to be able to to answer to call and also to return to the home in our hearts. Thank you for sharing your beautiful wisdom. 🙏
Louise, thank you for your deep sharing. In reading your words these feelings came to me...
In these particular travels I saw places that I only saw in my inner world come to life in the places that I visited in the outer world. When I look now at my inner world I see a new vastness that I wasn't aware of before...or maybe I was yet I was too afraid, too shame-filled, too shy, too small, too, too, too...filled with some sort of excuse.... to go there. Yet now I have come back I am allowing the inner to come more alive because of the outer that was experienced. I now feel that the excuses that was once there, the weeds that overtook part of my inner world, can no longer live within me, because in the travels I saw something greater, something more...my inner world and my current outer world (the physical space I am now taking up, my actions and reactions) are coming into greater balance so much more because of the travelling that I have just experienced.
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?
Tammy, thank you for such a raw response. Thank you for sharing where you are and where you would like to be.
May your journey take you to a place within that you can call home, an inward home when the outward home becomes too illusive.
May your time where you are gift your soul with purpose and hope
and may travelling one day to your heart's home come sooner than you expect.
Thank you for taking the time to read my piece and for sharing how it affected you.
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.
Hi Donna,
Firstly, I really appreciate that you "dive in with a comment about life"...ohhh that in and of itself makes writing here on substack all the more worth while. Diving in with a comment about life!!! I love that! Please feel free to just dive in anytime.
Secondly, I am honoured that my words spoke deeply to your soul. Thank you for sharing what they meant. I too agree that whatever the change maybe it is HOW we want to be when we step over that threshold that becomes important. What legacy do we now wish to leave behind, what footprints are we now treading, what words, actions, reactions are we now considering...
Thank you Donna for your sharing.
I loved this Sam! I have had longings to go to Ireland for awhile now, recognizing that is home in so many ways even though I have never been there before. (In this life anyways). Scotland too, even though I was there when I was 21. Yet the place that continually calls to me is Kauai. I have been visiting the islands since I was 18. My parents ended up living there for close to 35 years. Home in so many ways. Now that they have passed away, I have not set my feet upon Kauai's sands for four years. The longest time I have gone!
I always feel so much joy when the plane lands and the doors open. That is when I meet the tropical air, before I even leave my seat. Then when the plane is going down the runway as I leave, I cry tears of grief. Kauai is home, and where I am now is home. It truly is liminal.
I can relate so much to the liminal...to the places where one is home and so is the other. Where one takes your heart and holds it, your soul even, and then the other holds it in another way...maybe a ying and yang? Maybe a male and female and in the liminal there is the balance...the child is born.
It is Beltaine here. The energies of a Child/Mabon being born. The energies of The Moon and the Sun coming together. As I write this I feel that maybe the places where I have been have and are birthing a Creative Child (Force) within me that is needed at this time in this place where I currently call home.
Maybe that is the liminal place...the birthing...the holding...even the dying...so that we can be in many places of "home" all at once..
Julie, as always, thank you for your sharing.
I love this gorgeous reflection of travel Sam and there are some of the places that my soul yearns to visit like the Hebrides. I have spent so much time travelling in an inner world that the outer world now seems so vast! Strangely or not one of the places I've felt most at home is South America, I really felt like I had travelled to a culture that was both familiar and mine. Equally Derbyshire in the UK, which is much closer! It's that pull that you can't ignore, it's that whisper in your ear that there is something for you to discover. Where you follow the trail of your roots until you find at the other end a place, a sacred site, a feeling of belonging. We are blessed to be able to to answer to call and also to return to the home in our hearts. Thank you for sharing your beautiful wisdom. 🙏
Louise, thank you for your deep sharing. In reading your words these feelings came to me...
In these particular travels I saw places that I only saw in my inner world come to life in the places that I visited in the outer world. When I look now at my inner world I see a new vastness that I wasn't aware of before...or maybe I was yet I was too afraid, too shame-filled, too shy, too small, too, too, too...filled with some sort of excuse.... to go there. Yet now I have come back I am allowing the inner to come more alive because of the outer that was experienced. I now feel that the excuses that was once there, the weeds that overtook part of my inner world, can no longer live within me, because in the travels I saw something greater, something more...my inner world and my current outer world (the physical space I am now taking up, my actions and reactions) are coming into greater balance so much more because of the travelling that I have just experienced.
Thank you, for your wisdom and sharing Louise.
I love the idea of this new vastness and that travel expands our vision into something bigger. It’s quite magical. 💫🙏
Indeed! Indeed x