Archive for the ‘Jet Setter’ Category

It was a Gypsy Girl year.

January 1, 2012

Gypsy Girls, a happy and peaceful New Year to you all.

It was almost exactly a year ago I started posting here; I thought it would be a year-long series. The first post was called Getting Ready to say, “Yes!” It was about readying yourself to live your own, unique adventure. As I read that post again now, I cannot believe it was just seven and a half years ago I lived in a sprawling, cookie-cutter neighborhood in Colorado, my study of languages and love of foreign travel a distant memory.

In 2011 I was true to my word, true to that post. I readied myself and said, “Yes!” to all the adventures the Universe presented to me. They were far flung. As my very smart friend from Google’d said, how was just logistics. (At one point I was trying to figure out the best way to get from Livingstone, Zambia to work in Chengdu, China.) This video shares a small slice of what ensued. 22 countries. A TEDx talk at London Business School (that didn’t make the video). Feeding baby pandas in Chengdu, China. Safari in Botswana and Zambia. Rio, Hong Kong, Houston, visiting fellow Gypsy Girl Christine in Los Angeles.

I never imagined life could be like this. Thank you for being part of it. I hope you’ll enjoy the video. It was that same Googler friend who asked, “How was 2011?” Here is my reply. (The perfect Gypsy Girl song is Sara Bareilles‘ “Many the Miles,” purchased on iTunes.) Enjoy.

Life can look like this, Gypsy Girls. I would love to assist any of you who longs to create a life that’s true to you – your own unique adventure. How did the year go for you?

As inspiration, I’ll leave you with this snippet from Tara Sophia Mohr’s poem titled, “In the End.” ’Seems fitting. It’s included in the video above, too.

What you’ll want a thousand years from now is this:
a memory that beats like a heart–
a travel memory, of what it was to walk here,
alive and warm and textured within.

Rebecca is an American expat living in Zurich. She designs and delivers leadership development experiences for multinational firms and works as an executive coach all over the world. She took all the photos in the video in 2011 (except ones she’s in & one a travel companion snapped out their tuk-tuk in Siem Reap, Cambodia).

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Posted in Jet Setter, Nomad

Homesickness

August 19, 2011

When lovers are separated by distance, with one of them heading off on an adventure, they say that it is usually worse for the person left behind.  Personally I have often felt quite guilty about how little I feel homesick when I go away.  And I have been trying to work out why.

Why is it that I can be in a foreign land, among strangers, cold, tired and wet, and yet not wish to be anywhere else?

Why is it that leaving the comforts of home for the uncomfortable uncertainties of time on the road makes me happy?

Why is it that I can be a nester and a homemaker one month, and an itinerant traveller the next?

When I was younger I tried to explain this to my mum on many occasions.  At times I tried to explain it when she was crying at the airport, having come to wave me off somewhere new ( while I was trying to reduce the wattage of the smile on my face, with the prospect of travel ahead).   It always sounded like some clichéd breakup excuse – like “It’s not you”!   But that was the truth.  I didn’t see it as a reductive experience – where I was losing something (the daily presence of loved ones) – but as a constructive one – where I was gaining something (experience) and building something (my own life).   It wasn’t because I wanted to leave, but because I wanted to go more than I wanted to stay, and then I wanted to come back and share it all. 

For me, ‘not being homesick’ isn’t a case of wanting to be somewhere instead of home all the time, or about choosing people you don’t know over those that you do.   Rather, I think it is about staying connected to what you know whilst finding out what you don’t.  And about learning to appreciate what you have at home, by what you see while you are away.

And when you are somewhere strange, daunting and unknown, while it is good to seek out the new, it can make you feel safe to learn to recognise the familiar in the unfamiliar.  Our world is so connected now, that wherever you go there is always something to root you to home, whether it is a sense of humour, a cooking ingredient, or the way someone smiles.  You just need to look for it, realise it is there, and let it make you feel ‘homelove’ rather than ’homesick’.

Next time you travel, why not carry a piece of home with you – your favourite scarf,  a photograph, or even just a truth in your heart that you will be loved just as much when you return, as if you had stayed at home.

Adventurer Beth Nicholls is a regular contributor to Gypsy Girl’s Guide and has just returned from a 16 day road trip where she felt slightly guilty not to feel homesick at all.  Her groundbreaking ecourse ‘Do What You Love’ is now open for registration here.

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Posted in Jet Setter, Nomad, Soulful

Travelling Light

July 16, 2011

I always feel like this just before a long road trip.  Stealing moments of excitement between hours of endeavour, trying to get everything done before hitting the highway, clearing my mind and opening my heart to welcome the oncoming adventure.  But these days it is a little different. No longer do I leave the house in a rush, running for the plane and trailing heavy bags, fretting about my still-to-do list or worrying about domestic things.  Something shifted, because of a volcano thousands of miles away.

Last Spring I had the most wonderful piece of bad luck, when an ash cloud from a volcanic eruption in Iceland descended over Europe.   As the cloud filled the airspace, airports across the continent shut down one after the other leaving over 600,000 people stranded.  I found myself stuck in Geneva with nothing but my passport, credit card, and contents of my handbag.  All around me people fussed and worried, shouted and panicked, not knowing how they were going to make it to their next meeting, or get back to the office.  But as they stood complaining, I hugged myself with glee at this ‘bad luck’ and hopped on a train to Paris for the most wonderful long weekend of exploring. 

Worrying about missed appointments, the laptop left in a hotel room at Heathrow airport, or housekeeping duties at home wouldn’t have made any difference to the fact that I was stuck until the next Wednesday, so I left all those things in Geneva, picked up my handbag, took out my camera and slipped off to discover France’s wonderful capital. 

With no schedule, no plans and no worries, I was truly travelling light.  I felt inspired by everything I saw.  I wandered for miles, took hundreds of photos and did a whole lot of dreaming over sticky crepes in cosy cafes.  Even ash clouds have a silver lining.

As I skipped the streets of Paris with a tiny bag and happy heart I realised I didn’t need all those things I usually carried with me.  The ‘just in case’ clothes, books and toiletries I always thought I should take – just in case.  When it came down to it I realised I had everything I needed with me already. 

And isn’t it the same with the suitcases of our souls?  Each of us has things that weigh us down and hold us back when adventure beckons, or an opportunity for change presents itself.  Perhaps it is people who tread on your dreams.  Perhaps it is those niggling doubts that set in about the unknown.  Perhaps it is a concern about how you will manage financially.  Perhaps it is yourself, and your doubts about what you are capable of. Or maybe it is even fear of success. On this journey through life we pack our suitcases with unhealthy relationships, ties to material things, familial obligations, negative people… and sometimes we climb right in ourselves, and weigh ourselves down.  Some of these things are real, and urgent – like sick or ageing parents – but others are self-inflicted, imposed with our permission by others, or perhaps all in our imagination.   

Now when I’m packing for a road trip I only take what I really need.  And then I unpack, and only repack half of it.  And as I unpack the material things, I try to mentally unpack everything in my head that is weighing me down.  Fears of the unknown, worries about things that haven’t happened yet, echoes of the voices of the people telling me it’s too far, too dangerous, too much.

By leaving behind the people who restrict you, you can free yourself up for new adventures, new people, new experiences.  It lifts your spirit, opens your eyes and nourishes your soul.  It leaves room for curiosity, courage and passion in the suitcase of your soul.  

These days I travel light.

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Beth Nicholls is a new contributor to Gypsy Girl’s Guide who is busy unpacking her bags for another road trip

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Posted in Inspired, Jet Setter, Nomad, Places