The biggest hurdle that traveling helped me overcome is that I now know I can do it. It unveiled in me a level of body awareness and connection I haven’t experienced before, I know that a quick trip to Mexico doesn’t make me any kind of travel expert and certainly isn’t the same as a long exhaustive trip to Europe. But still, I found myself overcoming obstacles, through my pain and depletion, that I didn’t know I could conquer until I was doing them. I guess that’s pretty much how any of us live life in its unpredictability, isn’t it? We either choose to go, or we don’t.
A quick and whimsical pose between food, sight seeing and power shopping….yeah, he’s a lucky guy!
Yeah, conquered that thing!! Only 120 steps, straight up….thank goodness for my people. Seriously. They held me together.
Carrying around a potentially fatal disease has shifted something in me. Certainly not all bad, but yes, a very real transformation.
I don’t wanna think about my mortality. But I do. I don’t wanna be apprehensive about doing things I’ve
never done. But I am. I don’t wanna carry shame for being sick. But I do.
I want to believe I am brave. That this illness isn’t bigger than me and kicking my collective ass.
And I guess somewhere along the line and only recently, I realized I AM brave. Because I can acknowledge and honor these feelings in my body and still move through them. I can sit with them, become friends with that part of me that feels ugly, exhausted, and like giving up. That is how we conquer them. And conquering those things which feel foreign, unwanted and uncertain is the very essence of being brave. We don’t have to do it all at once or in great big grandiose ways. It really does manifest by putting one foot in front of the other, taking any steps we can and simply going.
So I’m here to encourage you to keep on keeping on, to continue challenging yourself with new things that call to you, whether it’s emotional or physical. Put yourself out there, don’t be afraid to jump those hurdles so you can live a great big gorgeous life!! In ways that fit for you. You will never regret the things you attempted as much as the things you didn’t, and oh my goodness, the results can be incredible!!
Getting ready to tour the island of Cozumel, in style! 
I would’ve missed all this had I given up. Oh, and it would’ve been so easy to do. So much walking and relentless heat. But something in me was more fierce than my pain and fatigue.
The sacred majesty of ancient Tulum, quite possibly the most breathtaking and extraordinary place I’ve ever explored. So far….