Sometimes it takes a journey to come home

Have you ever done yoga before? Some of my favorite classes have been with teachers that take as much time to experience the effects after a pose as they do for the pose itself. It's like my 3rd grade music teacher who told us music is made up of silence and sound--puzzling and intriguing to a young mind. Both silence and sound, movement and stillness, are equally important in their differences.

After moving, traveling, experiencing, bouncing around spaces I could never imagine, I am at rest, at home. It's only now that I can really feel the effects of my travels, the music, the movement. People have told me I'm completely different, something new has blossomed within me.
I have had a really rough past couple of years, and I feel more peaceful and stable now than I have in a very long time. Even though I was terrified of going to India alone, it is the absolute BEST THING I could have done for myself. I feel a new energy to face injustice around me. I'm finding new ways that I can change my life today that challenge structures of oppression and injustice. There's a flame burning subtly but strongly within my being. I am so grateful for being afforded this life to learn, to share, to turn this lost ship just one degree back in the right direction.

I will briefly share a few things I learned from India that stick out in my mind:
-Self-sufficiency is an illusion. I would not have gotten anywhere without the help of so many people along the way. Having a Lonely Plant guidebook for India is sort of useful but won't get you very far. It's a lovely feeling to let go of control of most everything. Like jumping into the ocean and letting the waves rock you back and forth, you can't predict their movement but there's comfort in uncertainty.
-Plans are arbitrary. We make them but the universe often seems to have something else in mind. GO WITH THE FLOW, it's out of our hands.
-Laugh more, much more. Laugh at most things--it makes the most unpleasant experiences more bearable. Don't take things too seriously
-"Struggle with the saying: You will be needed in the movement when you realize you are not needed in the movement."
-Feel the fear, and DO IT ANYWAY :)

Thank you all for so much love and support.

Your most grateful friend,
Laura