Hear Me Universe #49. Likes Europe

Why Europe?When I wrote my love list in 2008, I had traveled to cities in Europe, and in all of them, I felt equally mesmerized and grounded. The magical scenes, like local artists practicing their craft in Sacré-Cœur or a neighborhood baker near Campo de' Fiori opening for the day with fresh goodness on display, pulled me into a world that felt much like story books. It remains my desire to live for months in various countries and my travel list starts with many in Europe.How much fun to go on this adventure with my partner in travel and life? 

Hear Me Universe #48. Likes Travel

A travel partner. A comrade. A fellow explorer. A nomad’s heart. A welcoming of the discomfort that comes from being in new surroundings. A belief that we live in a beautiful, amazing, diverse world and that we are better humans when we experience what isn’t familiar and honor the diversity. A spontaneity that allows for being drawn to unexpected beauty. A desire to learn from others. A knowing that we expand from our experience with the unknown.

Hear Me Universe #47. Shares (again)

It’s here, again! How could I NOT have seen it before now? Before writing these posts one-by-one, I had never noticed that I repeated “shares.” I wrote my list—all 100—in nearly one sitting. I arrived at about #80 in about 40 minutes, just allowing whatever arrived in my consciousness be what I wrote down next. The last 20 items took a day or so, mainly because I felt that the remaining ones were even a little more precious. Forgetting that I had written “shares” just 25 items earlier shows that I was allowing whatever I heard in my head be what I wrote down.

When creating your love list:
1. write from your heart’s desire
2. write without self-judgment
3. write while feeling how you want to feel in that ideal relationship
4. write without editing
5. write with curiosity about what shows up

And, if there were to be a repeat, “shares” is a perfect duplicate.

Hear Me Universe #46. Finds Ways to Calmly Solve Problems

There’s an energy I desire in my life: in a moment of chaos or anxiety or interruption, I believe in taking a deep breath, assessing the options, and moving with ease into the storm. I knew Craig was a match to this energy the first time we traveled together. We joke in reference to this trip as our having paid for 2 vacations while only taking 1. It was the classic story you likely have heard: we missed the boat. 

Our scheduled cruise ship left without us on a winter’s day that we couldn’t get from here to there. Not knowing this until we were at our origination airport for check in, we took in what the agent was apologizing for: “storms...no plane...it will be tomorrow at earliest....” Despite the energy around us—a lot of travelers upset and arguing and expressing dissatisfaction, Craig and I both reacted in the same way, thanking the agent for his apology and asking this question: “what’s the soonest we can arrive in a warm climate?” The agent re-booked us for the next morning, giving us the day to plan a new vacation. No amount of complaining would change the situation. 

Were we happy to have missed the boat? No, we really wanted to take a mid-winter cruise. Was it easy to forfeit the money already paid (no, we didn’t buy trip insurance...) and invest resources in another vacation? No, so we weren’t extravagant in our plan-B. Was our time in the sun absolutely lovely? Yes, we eased into it the next day and laughed about our “2 for 1” vacation.
 

Hear Me Universe #45. Optimist

Optimism is a choice and in naming this ideal characteristic, I invited in someone who believes that negative events are temporary, limited in scope, and manageable. At the same time, optimists’ heads aren’t buried in the proverbial sand: they search for ways to help the survivors, or believe there is a cure to cancer, or work to innovate so that the broken systems are better. As Winston Churchill’s famously said, “a pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” Optimism is living in a spirit of what is possible and, when we begin to look for possibilities in the world around us, we FIND them.

Hear Me Universe #44. Risk-taker

I’ve heard Jim Carrey’s emphatic wisdom: “you can fail at what you don't want, so you might as well take a chance on doing what you love.”

That’s risk-taking, to me, and I desired to share my life with another soul who—despite the fear and failure and frustration and uncertainty on the other side of the risk—was motivated by the belief that there is GREAT reward in leaping. Leaping into the unknown with a knowing that the jump has so much possibility.

Two risk-takers together amplifies the energy of each individual—like being on a team of like-minded players. And, not all "risks" have to be as grand as cliff-diving; sometimes, being a risk-taker is saying words that feel important but vulnerable.