LIFE LESSONS
One of my yoga students yesterday shared with me that she was in awe of the way I have managed to adapt so easily to a new life in a new country, by myself, as she was finding it quite hard. I told her that it hasn’t always been so easy for me either, there have been many tough and lonely moments, but that thanks to the connection I have developed with nature and knowing that we are never truly alone, I have felt guided along this path.
I explained that we each have different experiences, upbringing, purpose, which help to prepare us for our life ahead, and that we each have our own life lessons to learn in our own way, in our own time. And so my experiences have led me to this point, and boy have I learnt some lessons along the way! Which I can now see with great clarity, how helpful they have been despite perhaps not always appreciating their value at the time.
For me, some of the things I needed to experience along the way to prepare me for this stage of life have been around resilience, standing firm in my beliefs/faith in myself despite being different, coping with rejection, keeping my heart and mind open, learning to ask for help, letting go of the need to control outcomes or situations or people, looking after myself not just others…and recognising patterns, when and how these situations keep reappearing until I have learned how to deal with them in a different, more constructive way.
Thank you to all of you who have helped me along the way as I developed - and continue to develop - into the vagabond that I am.
VAGABOND
I am a child of everywhere and nowhere,
A sign of the times, a cultural vagabond.
Like a chameleon I have learnt how
To change my colours; like a cat
I smile and observe without ever
Losing my wits, or myself. I belong here,
Now, wherever the wind blows. Sometimes
I look up to the sky and see the breeze
Scattering the clouds and understand
That like the sea, constantly washing
Grains of sand to the shore, I am right
Where I am meant to be, where I belong,
Until I follow the stars to where I should be.
Who am I? I am unique, the same as you.
A reinvention of a past life, a revocation of
All that doesn’t fit me now, here, where
Nothing matters anymore, where everything goes.
Belinda Raitt, from “Dancing With Shadows, Volume 1”