Happiness is Resting on Water

I noticed that I've been resisting to post because I have been waiting for that extra special something to take the main stage in my life. (Although going to college for a semester has put me "on stage.") On the other hand, there is this curious lightness of being in the air and a lack of eventfulness that is quite nice, actually. So I began to wonder… Why do I always harp so much about my search and desire for the inner calm, but when it actually comes my way, I easily dismiss it as unimportant or feel a little too plain within myself? The answer was in looking back on my pictures from Eden the other day. And right now it really feels as if I have been suspended by a calm and floating bliss: happiness is resting on water.

The reason I chose the image above is because it illustrates what I see from this state of "happy resting." From here I see my life as a beautiful collection of small compartments filled with seeds, gardens, trees, food, water, animals, rocks and soil. Some of these containers are filled with prettier parts, some have had more time to germinate, and some are more colorful than others. From this point of quietude though, I'm not choosing one thing to focus on. Instead, all these living boxes only prevail to form a big picture with a "You are Here" sign that places me on a trail-side map sign with random veins and arteries coming in.

Sure there are things that still need attention and work (piles of homework). Besides, we always feel the need to push forward no matter what, don’t we? If I could begin to tell you how that anticipation has burned and consumed me in the past few months and years. But not now. Now I am just sitting in this pool of tranquility, while all this other stuff remains out there to be solved, fixed and taken care of. Yet, I am content going on walks, taking the time to bake, watering the seedlings, loving my 2 hens, Luna and Night, eating mashed sweet potato yams and reading a magazine not pertaining to my classes. Not much indeed is happening. But somehow this mellowness warms me like the the floating sun on a winter-ish Friday. It rests on water, and it is enough. Love, Sharon

2014 Year in Review

Greetings from Prescott, Arizona, where snow is falling as 2014 comes to a close...

2014 included one of my biggest and most anticipated travel goals: I went on a double home exchange to Denmark and then Sweden. There were a few things I lost during the year, but what I gained was way more valuable: a state of deeper happiness, a more savvy adaptability, new friends that instilled and returned to me the interconnectedness of our humanity (imperfect or messy as they were), some killer dinner parties, playtime and celebration with ranch horses out in pasture, practical experience at an equine facility/horse ranch, time with canine pal, Otis, soaking at Eden Hot Springs, and lots of Real Love encounters = being a better steward of this lifestyle.

I am going into the new year living life a little slower than I have for the past several years. I'm shifting my extra time towards homesteading in my backyard and classes at the local college, while I continue to sell beautiful things online. I'm finding myself more content with what I have, learning to sit with loneliness and not run from all of the feelings that come and then go. The biggest thing I’ve learned is that I do the best when I let my heart be broken for the world around me to see and focus on all the good I have. Gratitude and hope are the "drugs" that get me through.

I have also learned that the value other people communicate to me does not have to speak louder than the value I find in myself. This has been work, but it's so worth it. It'll keep being worth it. If you've been following my blog, then you've seen my recent posts of the events mentioned above. Just me, saying thanks for being a part of it and I hope to thank you in person over the next couple weeks. With much Love, Sharon

Best Travel Advice Received | 30 Days of Indie Travel, Day 30

In responding to the best advice received while traveling, my mind went immediately to Elizabeth Gilbert's world-famous book, Eat, Pray, Love. Although I was not traveling at the time I read it, it satisfied my wanderlust and was a good long, juicy story. Through the art of story-telling from the female perspective, she explored basic, life-changing lessons, ones that I could apply to myself even when my marriage was at a high point, I still wanted to eat, pray and love a lot more. What I love most about Elizabeth's "advice" was that it inspired me to get up and do my best with who I am and with what I have each day. To be a pioneer of continuing on.

My second best travel advice comes from another author, Tim Ferriss, and he says: “Do what excites you.” Sometimes it is helpful to write things down that make me happy and that are good life policies. After a while I have a pretty clear picture of who I am, flaws and all, and what fulfills me. Having a travel wish list is helpful as well.

I'll end this post with these "pieces" of my travels to date (in and around the Stockholm area). This also wraps up the Indie 30 Days of Travel project. But it is never goodbye ;-)

Happy trails xoxo, Sharon

Celebrate

On a snowy Saturday afternoon, I ventured out a bit to the Chino Valley vineyards (just south of Prescott, Az) to attend my friends Ben and Juliette's wedding. From 3 until 3:30pm, I sat there among approximately 20 other friends and family happily shivering inside a rustic, Christmasy-decorated barn as they were married. I always cry at weddings, and this one was no exception: the goodness of happy tears ran down my face. I was honored to be there at this celebrating moment, but not quite expecting the amount of hope, love and joy that I carried home from that afternoon. I'm holding on to that feeling —and still holding— just as long as I can. All we need is to be loaded up with love, to be feeling it, to be chasing/falling into it, and in all manners be giving and receiving. It's so true when they say love is all you need. Enjoy ~Sharon Marzonie