A Mosaic of Crab Shells, Rebelling Against Routine & Dirt Chicken

TRAVEL BRINGS POWER AND LOVE BACK INTO YOUR LIFE." - RUMI

Rumi, that savvy 13th century poet and scholar, pointed out that travel—which means new surroundings, new experiences, doing and thinking things that are out of the ordinary from our day-to-day—brings power and love BACK into our lives.

Travel allows us the chance to do things and see things we normally never would in our routine lives, and our souls are better for it.  

Before we were married, my husband and I spent a week in Costa Rica – Santa Teresa to be exact – and they had the most expansive beaches I’d ever seen with the most beautifully colored crabs frolicking around everywhere. Each morning, stepping out onto the dirt roads, the number of smashed crab shells made the street look like a mosaic of vibrant colors—see, it gets VERY dark at night there, you can’t even see your fingers in front of your face, and the dirt roads belong to the crabs who whoop it up like they’re at some overpacked, sweaty salsa club, making it impossible for a truck or motorcycle to pass without wiping out a steady stream of partying crabs. Talk about seeing something for the first time!

I’d never seen such lushness and I never ate such good chicken(!) that was cooked on a grill dug a few inches into the ground. The dirt chicken that came out of this ramshackle hut was better than the 5-star hotel down the road.

So what is it that makes vacations wake us up? Is it purely due to the external environment—a “when in Rome…” and all that?

Or does it come from a deeper place within our internal environment, where we rebel against routine, playing it safe, and Whole Foods?

Do they awaken a sense of adventure that’s normally deep in hibernation?

Would it be possible to make our lives at home feel more vacation-ey? Can life be more about doing the things that we enjoy as opposed to being the responsible adult we always think we have to be? (snooooooze)

To test it out, the other day while working in a coffee shop I decided to pretend this particular coffee shop was in a different country - which wasn’t much of a stretch since the guy across from me was speaking French into his phone while dressed in a rather tight suit - he had all the European feels going on. So I just sat there, pretending, and I rather enjoyed it. It felt… serene. My shoulders actually didn’t feel pinned to my ears - which I guess is my normal? - and I felt a little release in my chest since no one I knew could possibly walk in forcing small talk since I was elsewhere - like Amalfi. I let my mind do the traveling and my body responded happily.

So why can’t we use our minds to spice things up even when we’re at home?

I believe it all begins from the inside, but it requires a new point of view. It begins by THINKING of new ways to bring more of that sense of adventure into our daily lives.

It doesn’t have to be about moving to the other side of the world or buying beachfront property, but about letting go of thinking we can’t get more out of life while in our home habitat.

What if we stopped scrolling, binge-watching, and numbing our brains with work that doesn’t fulfill us?

What if you began writing about the best places to buy acrylic paint and how to brush stroke a happy cloud on canvas, and now you’re smiling and one day you have a whole crew of people clamoring for more after you posted that silly pic on your website of your cat getting her paws into your paint — do you even have a cat, or a website? Who cares, do it anyway.

What if you let go of toxic friends, set boundaries with negative people, what if you did something your sensible self would immediately tsk-tsk but you forged ahead and it sent a charge up through your spine and out your head? That would be crazy! But it would also be amazing I bet.

Do one small, exciting thing and see what happens. Wake yourself up.

We tend to let our everyday lives run at their own speed, on their own time, while we repeat the same thoughts at least 60,000 times in our heads (#fact) and we simply follow along with what’s thrown our way because we believe that’s reality and this is just how it is.

Maybe not every day will be a vacation, but we’re here to enjoy, experience and we only have a VERY LIMITED TIME to do all that. So, what do you say? Get busy dreaming about living a vacation lifestyle, or get busy dying — that’s basically what Morgan Freedman was saying.

Find a restorative practice like beach yoga, meditation, or go someplace that feels like a retreat, which could be even as close as your backyard. Clean up an old space and make it yours. Do something new and allow yourself to experience power and love every day.

That’s all that was on my mind this week.

Till next week my mind-traveling friend!

❤️
am

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