It's April's Fools 2012 so by now it's safe to say I've developed a knack... or a hankering...or perhaps a crazy addiction?
Call it what you will but this Spring is 3 years in a row that I am away or just returning from some extended travel experience roundabout this time of year. Three years in a row that I am missing Passover at home... or April Fools. In fact, on this very day exactly one year ago, I was 4 days into the Annapurna Circuit trek through the Himalayas and scheming a proper April Fool's joke to play on our guides with my fellow trekkers (it ended up being pretty good and pretty effective: something about a change of heart and wanting to be airlifted back. We properly completed the trek all on foot 13 days later).
The April before that I was bussing to Patagonia from Buenos Aires to spend a month volunteering as a memoir-writing, ABBA dancing personal assistant in the 1000-person town of Cavaihue with a woman named Ginny, who touched and changed my life forever (she's a big part of the reason I decided to get my yoga teaching certificate the summer I returned).
And now this. On Tuesday I leave for Nicaragua, with a one way ticket and an open mind. I'll be spending the first few weeks volunteering with the foundation Aprender and providing marketing services in exchange for room and board at the brand new yoga/artist retreat, Equilibrio (more on all this later!). I envision continuing on after that to see as much of Central America as I can, "yoga retreat hopping" if you will within the confines of what my solo female budget travel sensibility will allow.
In honor then of the increasing chapters of my ongoing travels I've renamed my blog. While initially created to help document my six months in South America and thusly named "KareninSouthAmerica," this blog has evolved to help document me simply being in the world. Travel seems to have become a big component of that for all the ways it educates and inspires and fortifies me. But traveling has also taught me, it's possible to experience all this just by knowing where to look. To test and redefine your own boundaries on whatever terms you choose.
My friend Gabrielle actually wrote a beautiful song about it. The song isn't about traveling per se but that powerful urge to go off in search of something bigger then what you know, in order to come back home. Inside. When I told her I loved it and that it was perfect for me, she replied "it's (perfect) for all of us who wake up and see there must be something more than all of this... it never changes...never gets easier. Only the leaping does."
Amen to that. I start this next chapter then and leave you for now with these lyrics to Inside.
Inside
She's gone traveling traveling
trying to catch the sun as it sets
left to right wandering wondering
will the moon rise
inside
Always,
Karen
Call it what you will but this Spring is 3 years in a row that I am away or just returning from some extended travel experience roundabout this time of year. Three years in a row that I am missing Passover at home... or April Fools. In fact, on this very day exactly one year ago, I was 4 days into the Annapurna Circuit trek through the Himalayas and scheming a proper April Fool's joke to play on our guides with my fellow trekkers (it ended up being pretty good and pretty effective: something about a change of heart and wanting to be airlifted back. We properly completed the trek all on foot 13 days later).
The April before that I was bussing to Patagonia from Buenos Aires to spend a month volunteering as a memoir-writing, ABBA dancing personal assistant in the 1000-person town of Cavaihue with a woman named Ginny, who touched and changed my life forever (she's a big part of the reason I decided to get my yoga teaching certificate the summer I returned).
And now this. On Tuesday I leave for Nicaragua, with a one way ticket and an open mind. I'll be spending the first few weeks volunteering with the foundation Aprender and providing marketing services in exchange for room and board at the brand new yoga/artist retreat, Equilibrio (more on all this later!). I envision continuing on after that to see as much of Central America as I can, "yoga retreat hopping" if you will within the confines of what my solo female budget travel sensibility will allow.
In honor then of the increasing chapters of my ongoing travels I've renamed my blog. While initially created to help document my six months in South America and thusly named "KareninSouthAmerica," this blog has evolved to help document me simply being in the world. Travel seems to have become a big component of that for all the ways it educates and inspires and fortifies me. But traveling has also taught me, it's possible to experience all this just by knowing where to look. To test and redefine your own boundaries on whatever terms you choose.
My friend Gabrielle actually wrote a beautiful song about it. The song isn't about traveling per se but that powerful urge to go off in search of something bigger then what you know, in order to come back home. Inside. When I told her I loved it and that it was perfect for me, she replied "it's (perfect) for all of us who wake up and see there must be something more than all of this... it never changes...never gets easier. Only the leaping does."
Amen to that. I start this next chapter then and leave you for now with these lyrics to Inside.
Inside
She's gone traveling traveling
trying to catch the sun as it sets
left to right wandering wondering
will the moon rise
inside
She rise up she fall down
she pick herself to run right way
left alone happily saddening
will I ever be
satisfied
she pick herself to run right way
left alone happily saddening
will I ever be
satisfied
She smiles inside wide
She's not searching no
for some hidden meaning
the world gone and open up open up
telling her
it's inside
She's not searching no
for some hidden meaning
the world gone and open up open up
telling her
it's inside
No she just got to learn to trust it and
she got to learn to see it
for what the world holds
for what it creates
outside
She smiles inside wide
she got to learn to see it
for what the world holds
for what it creates
outside
She smiles inside wide
Look at her how she glows
feeling it from head down to toes
making the world happen as she goes
her world turning
turning
feeling it from head down to toes
making the world happen as she goes
her world turning
turning
She smiles inside wide
Always,
Karen
1 comment:
Beautiful!! I can´t believe I am reading your blog today for the first time,...got me by surprise when I got your first pictures!!! Thanks for sharing your experiences with us!
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