I’ve found that traveling is a healing and rejuvenating experience, especially when done mindfully. But there always comes a moment in a journey when I feel the turn towards the end – towards home. It’s often laced with anxiety as I feel the sense of open space slowly disappearing, and the buzz of the “real world” and responsibility closing in. But on our way out this time, I was reminded by several things that what lay in waiting for me upon return wasn’t just a physical destination, it was was…me. And the accumulation of everything I’d experienced was residing within me to be tapped into whenever I wanted it.

The first reminder presented itself as we made our way down the curvy, ice road at the Northern most point of our road trip – we were met by a big, black crow. He attached to us, showing up and then vanishing only to show up again miles later. It was fascinating how much he lingered around us. After telling this to my friend who has been reading my animal tarot cards, she shared this significance about the crow with me: Crows can adapt to any environment. They are messengers calling to us about the creation & magic that is alive and available to us. This was wildly inspirational to me. It reminded me that returning home wasn’t the end of the journey, after all, it was the beginning of a new chapter and all the new things I learned about myself experienced on the trip were not left on the road. The trip just taught me how to access them so I could use them in my next steps in life.

The second came a little further down the road as we passed a road sign that said “Entering the municipality of Hope.” At first, I thought it was cute, and then it’s potential for double meaning dawned on me. Obviously, it’s referencing a township, but it felt deeper. Especially with the stress of going back home and to work creeping in. “Municipality” is defined as a corporate status… something official and permanent. So it’s a status of hope! But the hope of what? That’s where it became beautiful to me. It’s open-ended to be whatever you want or need it to be. Hope of a better future, health, love.

I’m learning that the more I explore, the bigger the world becomes and the more selfish I become about my life and how I use it. So, for me, reminders instill the hope that I can hold on to the joy, creativity, and open spiritedness I’ve developed while on the road and it’s always there to use in my personal development and my work.

PS: The crow was huge...

Love. Joy. Peace.

These are words that have lost much of their sincerity. They’ve been reduced to paraphernalia like a cursive word on a wall or a decorative inscription, or even a thoughtless sign off. But they are mostly void of what they truly represent and as a result taken for granted a lot of the time. But these three things – not the words themselves, but the feelings they represent – have grown to have deep meaning to me recently.

Love.

I had made it a practice to tell my friends and family who I love that I love them more often. It was a very warming practice because you truly feel it when it’s said with authenticity. You know when someone means it – and when they don’t. But I’d forgotten this practice until a dear friend told me “love you” when we parted ways after meeting up on the road with our husbands and some other friend recently. I’d just forgotten. Maybe I was moving too fast or gotten too busy. So it almost surprised me to hear it, and just like that I was reminded of it’s value. I love you. It’s a real human connection, a shared delight of being in each others company, a proclamation of ones value to another. And it’s amazing.

Joy.

This year has been a year of awareness for me. Eyes open. Seeing things. And without being awake like this, it would be hard to see the small moments of joy. They just slip right past, unnoticed. And there are a lot more small moments than there are large ones… From the magnitude of a mountain and the depth of the starts on a clear moonless night to the connection with friends and loved ones. Or just appreciating that the seeming serendipity of a special moment is actually individual intention and order driving everything to be at that one place at that one time… Moments of joy are not always big moments jumping out at you, but they are there nonetheless no matter where we are in the world if we are open to seeing them.

Peace.