I have changed the name of my blogg, this is a really big thing for me, and happened very suddenly and unexpectedly today.
I had gone to get a new passport, mine was full, six years before it was due up! Another clear example of how blessed I am. On my way back I called into the Red Ninja offices and spent time talking about my future plans. Bridget said: 'You should keep a blog about the big changes occurring in your life', when I replied I do have a blogg but I haven't written it much recently. It suddenly occurred to me that the time was right for me to change the blogg, title, format and maybe content as well - to reflect where I am and the huge changes that are occurring in my life.
So, I have changed the title and format and this is the first of my new bloggs!
It took me a while to decide on a title - the expression and concept of 'travelling lightly' has been with me for quite a while. I wrote on Facebook the other day - All we truly have is what we have learnt........ I can't remember where I came across it but it has such resonance to me at the moment. At a time when I am putting into place - my leaving of the University, after 31 years - leaving Liverpool after over 40 years....... I feel really drawn to the concept of travelling lightly through this amazing journey of life.
I have found it really interesting that I used the concept of a 'learning journey' as a very core element of my professional work, going back over 20 years. However I now see a learning journey differently.
To be alive is just such an extraordinary thing - I see it as a combination of two fundamentally and completely different ingredients... the soul being one element - the etheric spark combining with another completely different element - the human, physical earth made body. Together they make one unique, distinctive and magical thing called a human being.
I believe that souls incarnate into human bodies to learn...... not just for themselves but for the Universe. I also believe that the soul, on behalf the Universe, chooses in advance what they wish to learn. However when they become part of a human being, with everything that this involves, this knowledge becomes lost - particularly after childhood, until sometimes remembered when very close to death.
Reflecting on my life, and my career etc I recognise the extraordinary good fortune that I have had. The major component of this good fortune has been my ability, and the associated circumstances which have enabled me to able to listen to my intuition....... to be able to go with the flow and to do what 'felt' the good/right thing to do. When I did this - things just seemed to happen...... difficult to explain - but the lighter and more in tune with my intuition I was - things just turned out right - and sometimes when they didn't seem right at the time - with time and on reflection - they were actually perfect.
Because I was able to follow my intuition, to go with the flow, and to be happy with that...... being happy is so incredibly important, because when one is happy, genuinely, deeply and sustainably happy, one is resonating with the Universe. I call it the Universe but I don't know what this means....... and this is the heart of the human dilemma - we can 'feel' the connection, we can wish to describe it - but because we are an unique soul and as a consequence separated from the Universe by living in this human life form - we are not able to 'know'. This means we have to have faith, to accept the mystery, to know that we don't know...... but at the same time to know that we do know.......
It is not easy being a human being!
I met a wonderful woman a couple of weeks ago who understood and was able to verbalise/explain this so beautifully, this gave me such an amazing sense of certainty. However life continues, if we are lucky! and it is not always easy to hold on to that sense of certainty.
I am certain that I am living in very blessed life. I am certain that there are responsibilities that go along with that. I am certain that to travel lightly, and to be fully present wherever I am - are really, really important things. I also think the small things are the most important, the conscious act of kindness, being genuinely caring and compassionate, speaking truthfully, loving others through loving yourself first but not being self obsessed.
Bufffffffff! It IS NOT easy being a human being!
Another factor in changing the name of my blogg, which in no way changes the fact that Chris Jenkins was a lovely man, is that I am developing a different relationship with grief...... and another thing this insightful woman talk to me about - was that I was still holding onto a lot of grief...... I was surprised as I thought I had moved on a long way, which of course I have, but meeting with her was the impetus for me to say - that I no longer carry grief.... and now I'm living my life on the basis.... I no longer carry grief. Another part of the jigsaw of travelling lightly.
So the details of my leaving Liverpool are now becoming a reality, the last week in October, which will now also include an official leaving event from the university, my time between now and then being filled with travel of course! No grief.... or even sadness...... that I am fully accepting that I will be emotional through this process,.... but I intend to travel lightly!
