I am recently home from an incredible trip to Hong Kong and Bali. This trip turned out to be nothing at all what I expected – in hindsight it was silly of me to think I could actually have a set plan. But yet I left the Toronto airport with a plan in place filled with many expectations. I had this idea that being in this soulful place would change me… as if it would provide me the environment and structure to transform my spiritual/personal growth from a practice to simply being who I am.
And it did!!!! Just not how I thought it would.
It started off with the realization that my expectations were not going to be met. There was no class for me to do my yoga. There was no time or space permitted for me to meditate in the temples. My sleep was thrown off with the twelve hour time change, having me awake at 4 am each day and ready for bed each night by 9. There were no quiet roads to travel, like I had seen in the movie Eat Pray and Love, instead what at best could be described as organized chaos. And despite my best efforts, my belief I could control/manage my daughter exposure to peanuts was not possible (she has a life threatening allergy). This would be a daily and sometimes moment by moment challenge.
Instead what happened is I let go… let go of my expectations and said yes to life. Fully and completely! It was transforming… Instead of needing a temple to meditate, I greeted each person embracing the soul to soul connection. I meditated in the sea while scuba diving, while surfing, while driving in the car, while sitting on the beach, while hugging my beautiful daughter. I did my yoga on the balcony, in the bedroom, beside the pool. I listened as my mind raced at times and recognized that I was now in a place I had heard of, but rarely ever before experienced; I could witness my thoughts and not be of my thoughts.
When Mount Raung decided to send volcanic ash into the air turning our 22 hour flight time home into 3 days (46 of which became airport travel) I could take a deep breath, smile, appreciate and embrace the challenge as the game that it was; knowing there would be no winners or losers.
I left Bali with a beautiful knowing; my life will pass me by in a blink of an eye, and it will all just be a memory witnessed in my last breath! With this knowing comes the freedom to make the choice to embrace all that life has to offer me with enthusiasm, joy and love; transforming the ordinary into extraordinary.
And when I thought it was not possible to understand this at an even deeper level…the airplane ride home took all that I had experienced, and learned, and challenged it in a way I never thought possible… (that story to be shared in my next upcoming blog).
© Kathy Bazinet 2015