Destination: New York (NYC >>High Falls>> Brooklyn)

Traveling solo to attend a workshop based on the Enneagram. This trip served as both continuing education for my job, and continuing education for my soul. Deep inner work was the purpose of this journey, mixed with a little play of course ;-)

Before the emotional “heavy lifting” of the training, I knew I wanted to take advantage of there being another brand enthusiast in the area. The day before arriving in New York was filled with stress and anxiety (I saved booking accommodation for the workshop that day). When will I ever learn?! Once on my journey however, everything went as smooth as if I had planned the whole thing for months. After my flight I bussed and walked on over to Micaela Mamade’s home in the city. This was our first time meeting, and she was quite possibly the friendliest and most attentive host; knowing what I needed before I did. It was just a short time before we were out the door, finding fun spaces and places to bust a move in our Mika gear, answering spectator questions along the way, and filling each other in on our lives. She was a breeze to pose with, equal parts gifted and quirky, and topped with a sassy Portuguese accent. Of course the sass was more her and less accent! Haha! Love you Micaela! After a quick breakfast I was on my way to catch a bus to upstate New York and Micaela was off to teach a Pilates class. I met some friendly locals at a restaurant where I waited until my bus arrived, then was on my way to High Falls. The landscape quickly changed from concrete and high rises, to luscious green hills and trees. I decided to walk the rest of the way (a reason why I prefer traveling with only a backpack) to the workshop facility, a small two lane windy road, filled with bird and frog noises and tall trees and ferns on either side. While at the workshop, every day was filled with insight, rain, lightning bugs, and deep connections with new friends all interested in the same work and path that you, yourself, have committed to. A life of owning our habitual patterns, growing and learning from them, and of being awake. The week came to a wrap before I knew it and I was back off to the city with one of my new connections, a truly interesting individual, and a car ride that I would not have minded lasting longer than it did. They dropped me off at a subway station that would take me to my next location, an old friend of mine living in Brooklyn. I only walked half of a block towards the subway when I noticed a basketball game going on. Turns out it was a city league filled with extreme talent; one player having had a short NBA career. Travel note: Keep your eyes up, you never know what you might catch if you are open to it. Basketball having been one of my sports growing up I stopped, excited by the skill of the players and the “front row seats” I had, aka clinging on to the chain link fence separating me from the players. The other onlookers and I threw out our cheers and jeers and the occasional, “oh c’mon ref!” Half a game later, I moved on towards Brooklyn, and was with my friend Christy, enjoying her company like we were back in college again. We sat on her rooftop, eating dinner, with a view of the city, and catching up. She left early for work the next day, and before I split to catch my flight I walked the Brooklyn Bridge over to Manhattan, ate a delicious lunch, then grabbed my stuff and was back on the subway to catch my flight back to California. It all came to a beautiful close when my best friend did the ultimate sacrifice of picking me up at midnight from the airport and laughed at me as I stumbled around, half-there, from exhaustion. Then I woke up the next morning and did a quick garden check (cared for by my roommate while I was away) only to discover I had huge amazing zucchini ready to eat and a bottle of my favorite sparkling water waiting in the refrigerator for me. Travelling is wonderful, but the gifts of home are pretty terrific too. As summer is wrapping up in the northern hemisphere, I hope that you all too have had some great trips full of love, life, fate, and a sense of wonder.

On the road again, Brita