‘Lessons from abroad’ is a piece inspired by my move to Bali, Indonesia and my travels within Southeast Asia.
Each lesson is left open with an ambiguous interpretation, that is unspecific in relation to locality – touching the nature of what it is to learn from travel itself as all experiences can be integrated within the mix of self-teachings we already carry within ourselves.
What we bring upon our self-journey after the final moments in one destination can be transmuted as a feeling, or rather a lesson – for which we grow immensely from.
We have the option of building upon our internalized bank of knowledge, no matter where our residency may be. Our experiences are dependent on the level of immersion we engage within our environments and relatively, how we feel when we are there.
Continue to see, feel – continue to dream
The lessons
Embrace your surroundings
Open yourself to the world around you. Breathe in the sunlight, a gentle exhale of all burdens will follow.
Treasure each moment
Serenity is felt by just a moment’s grace, hold close to yourself with a great trust that each passing moment will guide you to your next steps of fulfillment. Remain in these moments, never abandoning them until you have felt, with gratitude. All moments are irreplaceable, never to be replicated.
Nothing will ever be the same twice, not even you.
Indulge the senses
What is seemingly insignificant may not be. This realization takes an intuitive eye, to see with feeling and less of thought. My most profound epiphanies were strung together through an accumulation of sensory detail.
The innocent: the laughter of children, who lesson forgiveness without bitterness. the purity of joy from sheer being. their smiles. the angels of earth, sent to illuminate love, compassion and honesty.
The impatient: the honking of a car, whose driver grows restless amidst traffic. unable to find peace within the space that confines himself, the restless continues to heighten. patience waiting to be a virtue, living within a moment far from now.
The artist: the forbearance of creators, a woman quietly strings flowers together in a small booth within a market, threading meticulously day in and day out. Patient, without regard of external approval. Attuned to solely creating for inner contentment.
Love, without attachment
There will be people you meet who move you, who inspire something within yourself to bloom.
Yet, these people often live within a perpetual state of coming and going. You will learn from this provisional state of life to embrace without imprisonment. To welcome with no expectation of one’s stay. To grow within this transient part of life, through the acceptance of impermanence.
Then, their departure will arrive.
And you will learn to let go…
….every time.
Free the heart
We will leave our worlds scattered with those that we love. They will come from different places; they will move forward in opposite directions. Their presence – finding absence within the course of time, but their memories are yours forever, for keepsake.
Place them in a sacred spot within your heart. Then, set your heart free from the ache of missing.
Unfold the universal connectivity
Treat those who enter your experience as a reflection of you, even on a microscopic scale. Every person who enters your experience has something you can learn from, something you can carry with you to your next destination.
The soul who enters with anger, will ask you to question within yourself, if you too, carry anger. The soul who enters with great sadness, will ask you to question within yourself, if you too, carry sadness.
Separate yourself from these occurrences for an objective perspective. Then come back to yourself, to find the connection with those you have just met.
(The best part may be the acute realization that the strangers in which we find connections with are never strangers. Rather, they are the intricate pieces added to our life’s puzzle.)
Be entirely fluid with what happens moment to moment.
The day will come when you feel like doing nothing at all, despite a fleeting feeling that by doing nothing, you will have wasted your day. Make peace with this kind of anxiety. There is no need for a pressure that encourages you to be somewhere else from where you are, right now.
Kindly remember:
A life well fulfilled is never measured by a number of places traveled to nor levels of productivity – rather, the grandeur of it’s measurement is definitive of your ability to do whatever it is you feel like, in that moment which presents itself.
Rest easy in this understanding. Stay true to not only who you are, but your experience, too.
Surrender
This one is in honor of my dear friend Tribid, the third eye bull. A spiritual guru, mystical energy, and confidant of mine – who was most special upon my journey. With a loving heart, he confessed a truth which led to be as comforting as a warm hug, accompanied after a hard day:
“You must surrender, my love.”
because even when we respond to our experience, there is something larger at wake that is not meant for our control. It is unforeseen, only to be felt, hearing and listening to us at all moments. It plans upon our plans, reroutes our routes, rearranging our arrangements.
Resistance towards this inexplicable force will fuel greater resistance, and so we must be fluid, once again. Allowing and surrendering ourselves to the unknown for ultimate self-liberation.
Take a moment to review the above, ask yourself if all can be experienced relative or irrelative of where you are, presently.
With love,
Amanda
