Archive for the ‘Archives (My Journey)’ Category

Destination or Journey?

January 25, 2011

How does that saying go? It’s not the destination it’s the journey? I looked it up and found 2 distinct quotes that really say the same thing, though just enough differently that I wanted to quote them both:

“The road of life twists and turns and no two directions are ever the same. Yet our lessons come from the journey, not the destination.” –Don Williams, Jr. (American Novelist and Poet)

“Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it.” –Greg Anderson (American Author and founder of the American Wellness Project)

I like parts of both these sentiments. Doesn’t it feel like they were born out of our modern rush to “get” somewhere, even when we don’t know quite where we’re going? Wherever that “where” is: a long planned trip to far away shores; a new business venture, making a major life shift, or taking an inner journey deep into your very own soul.

Slowing down to enjoy and learn from the journey is a beautiful thing, but my feeling about both of these quotes is that they leave out the importance of where you end up, your final destination, your landing zone. I know for me I definitely get joy out of the “finishing of something” and have picked up quite a few lessons that I didn’t understand until I reached that final destination.

I am remembering back to the year in my very early 20s when I ended a relationship, sold my car and all my other not easily move-able possessions (and stored the things I couldn’t bear to part with in my mother’s attic) and moved to Greece. The journey just to get on to the plane bound for Athens was long, almost 8 months. It was painful (to put it mildly) and full of tests and lessons that I wouldn’t wish on anyone. I hated almost every moment of it – except the night that started the journey, when I took my mum out to dinner and told her my grand plan. She was not nearly so thrilled as I, but she kept it to herself, and well, that’s a whole other journey…

So move forward 8 months, and I have landed in Greece and am whipping along in a taxi bound for Athens, and am dropping my few belongings in a small small hotel in the Plaka where I will live for a few weeks before finding moving to a little apartment, which will be temporary, but homey. I feel a sense of calm, a quiet and palpable joy that puts the whole journey into a new perspective for me.

Somehow a lot of tears, stress, worry and what seemed to have been a never ending series of painful and difficult conversations with the boyfriend and with my family, as well as conversations with friends that often ended with them saying things like, “well…. as long as you think this is a good idea…” had coalesced into sureness and peace. Peace and sureness, when by all rights I should have felt more stress and worry: I didn’t speak any Greek, I had no idea where I was going to live, I didn’t know anyone and I had only about $800 to my name. But I was at peace, and I was happy. Not giddy bouncy silly happy, but happy in that way that an equal combination of joy and peace can bring. This was my destination. The destination of this physical journey was Greece, but the larger destination was about following through on a choice that made sense to me, made sense for my life, and my journey.

The journey is often where we struggle, and stretch for things that feel out of reach. It is where we can get tangled up and it is also where we can find purpose. It is often fraught, it is sometimes painful and it is almost always something to look back on and say: “Oh, that’s why (insert the lesson/story/journey) that happened in that way”. The journey is about movement – literal or figurative – and it is more often then not about change. I think that the destination is about taking note of the changes, putting together the story and celebrating all the moments that got you there. It is about tying up the ribbons and tucking in the bows, it is releasing a long held breath, it is completion, and contemplation before the next journey begins.

For every journey I have been on, whether it involved getting on a plane, or jumping into my own head and tossing things around, the destination was the place where I arrived with my bag of experiences and hopefully a new outlook. It is the place where I can come back to who I am and where I am, and say, “oh hello, don’t I know you?”

For each of you reading, do you believe the journey is all that, and the destination not so much? Or vice versa? Where do your journeys and your destinations put you on the map of your own life? Have you thought about the map that could be created from all your life experiences? Kind of a fun thought, huh?

Liz Kalloch is a regular contributor to Gypsy Girl’s Guide.

8 Comments | Add a Comment | 
Posted in Archives (My Journey), Creative, Places, Soulful

Work for Life, Not the Resume

November 22, 2010

I lived in Greece for several years, mostly in Athens, but one year I took a summer off from the city and spent 2 months on the island of Corfu. It is the Greek isle furthest west, just off the southern coast of  Albania, and beautiful in the way each each of the islands shines its own uniqueness. Beaches, and sand, rocks and grassy fields, tumbled down ruins from Greece’s hey-day and new stucco houses, travellers and locals all spending a summer by the sparkling Mediterranean sea.

It was a drowsy, slow and ever so summer-y summer. It was the kind of summer I used to have when I was 9 or 10: full of beach time and reading and walking in tall grass daydreaming,  swimming in the ocean, and hanging out with friends, but unlike the summers of my childhood, it was also a summer spent mending nets on a fishing boat.

Each morning we would push out of the harbour at 4am in the small boat, the captain, 2 mates and me. I had some rudimentary Greek by then, but mostly along the lines of polite shop conversation, the three others on the crew spoke even less English than that. We did our work together with hand gestures and smiles, and happy animated nods when a gesture was understood. My specific job was to wait until the nets had been hauled back onto the boat by hand, emptied, and then I would lay them on the deck and check for rips and tears, and quickly mend them for the next haul. That was it. My whole job was about waiting, and then rhythm and speed, followed by more waiting.

Most people when they hear this story want to know how I got this  job, what were my qualifications, why would they hire a young American girl, why did anyone think I could do it, and why did I even want to do it. The long story made short is that I wanted to try, they needed someone, and I couldn’t think of a better way to spend a summer  and honestly, I needed to earn money. Pretty simple.

I realised later that that job was about learning how to be. How to just be. There was going to be no pay-off, no outcome, no stepping stone to the next thing, no big return, and though it has never appeared on any version of my resume, it is one of the jobs where I learned the most about myself.

It was hard work, and enough money to pay for food and a 1 room dirt floor cottage. It was sitting on the boat deck, waiting for the next catch to be pulled in. It was watching the water move, roll over and shed itself in an endless cycle; feeling the the sun warm the crown of my bent head, and the boat rock slowly side to side. It was reading books, and sketching in my journal, and learning all the Greek swear words the guys wanted to teach me. It was enough, and it was plenty.

Sometimes now, when I am turning a project into an expectation-filled-tsunami of stress and over-thinking, I flash back to that summer on the fishing boat and how doing what needed to be done in the moment, not more and not less, was enough. How I was enough.  How my world felt full of life and meaning and substance, and I knew my role and was happy living in it. Perhaps not a job to put on my current resume, but certainly one that taught me more about being alive and in the moment than any other job has since.

Liz Kalloch is an artist, designer and writer who lives in the San Francisco Bay area where she runs her own business. She believes we all have our own very individual life purpose and that when we stop long enough to listen to that still and quiet inner voice, we can do anything we choose. She is a regular contributor at Gypsy Girl’s Guide.

4 Comments | Add a Comment | 
Posted in Archives (My Journey), Aware, Places

what dreams may come

November 7, 2010

It is funny how it goes…

When we first have a dream, it seems unattainable

and we spend hours and hours

envisioning what it would be like to have our wish come true.

We imagine how we would be proud

to show off our accomplishment

and how we might just get to be more loved for it…

or something like that.

You see, I dreamed of being featured on Artful Blogging since its very first issue.

I xeroxed and printed the cover of one of the magazines

and put it up on my vision board trying to manifest if for myself.

(yes! there is power in seeing and shaping the life you want!)

A few moons later, here I am and here IT is!!!

My dream came true and it’s been already a few months actually!

Although I’ve meant to share the lovely pages for quite sometime (the Fall issue in which I am featured came out in August)

the need to show and share, became less pressing for me… I mean, I am still damn proud of myself and really wanted to share it.

But my point is… Truly, when you chase something you LOVE,

once you get there, the recognition and the praise are not necessary at all.

I’m very pleased though, with the great job they did printing my photos and article.

[Isn't this magazine just stunning across the board? If you haven't picked one up yet, I highly recommend it.]

I look at the pages above and it sure is wonderful to know my dream became real.

On the other hand, at every milestone I am reminded that

the best part is dreaming, longing, chasing, (blogging!) and doing what I am supposed to be doing to feel alive.

ps: Thank you, dear Christen! xoxx

12 Comments | Add a Comment | 
Posted in Archives (My Journey), Creative