We´re off to Ushuaia this afternoon.
There´s something compelling about being at the end of the world on New Years.
I´m not sure where or how my vision of Tierra del Fuego as a mystical land rooted. I don´t remember reading anything about it or talking to someone about this city whose name sounds like a primal chant.
Nevertheless, the place has fascinated me for years. I´m ready for the sweet mysteriousness to unveil itself in 18 hour days.
There´s almost something frightening about finally visiting that destination you´ve dreamed about. Will it disappoint?
Will that magnetic energy dissipate when you finally disembark plane side? Is the best destination the one you haven´t visited? The most romantic love the one that is unfulfilled?
My cynical side shrugs. My larger, lighter side thinks it´s a self-protective mechanism so we don´t have to be courageous enough to sink into the joy of the present experience.
Leaning into love with your collective ego, heart and body takes guts and feeling complete and happy while in love or in travel takes passion and mindfulness.
If Ushuaia falls short of magic, I hope to have the courage to cast my own spell and love it for its reality.
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Over the next few days, I´m going to reflect on my next word of the year. Instead of creating resolutions that I´ll resent, ignore, or hide from, I´ve decided to take Christine Kane ´s advice this year and create a word of the year.
As Christine says, resolutions focus on the “DO” level.
A word of the year focuses on the “BE” level.
Check out Christine Kane´s post for sample words of the year.
Perhaps shouting my intention for the year from the bottom of the world will help it reverberate throughout the universe. Like a earthquake begins in the lower levels of the earth or internal shifts start as whispers in the depths of the soul.
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What are your thoughts? Leave your word of the year below to shout it out from your corner of the world.
If you are single and a frequent traveler, than falling in love on the road is something you’ve probably contemplated. Meeting someone abroad is exciting, exotic and intoxicatingly romantic. In short: pretty hard to resist. Those who work, study, or volunteer abroad for long periods of time are even more vulnerable to falling for either locals or fellow travelers. Finding love overseas can be a dizzying roller coast ride; it’s fun and thrilling with brutal highs and lows.
Then again, sometimes it does work out. My friend Kim met a cute boy studying abroad in Vienna; four years later they live together with two cats in Atlanta. “You see each other’s true colors when you are traveling together for long periods of time. We finagled our way into a 4th of July celebration with some expats, choked out German phone reservations for a stay in a Salzburg nunnery and slept in an itchy burlap sack in a tent hostel. There were no expectations or pressure from friends since we were just exploring. Plus there wasn’t a stamp of doom at the end of the summer because we both went to the same school and we wanted to see if we could make it work back in reality. I knew Brian and I could last because we were rock’n travel companions,” she says.
What to pack: Bring a journal, pen, loose clothes that are comfortable to move and sit in, an alarm clock for those early wake-up calls, a yoga mat, and meditation supplies. Most retreats will, likely, provide 
) However, the “noble silence” (as they called it) ended up being a profound teacher, once I got past the anger and discomfort I experienced the first two days.
The most challenging part of the retreat, other than the silence, was all the sitting. We sat for about 6 meditation sittings a day at 30 minutes each. Both the body and the mind became stiff, bored, and sleepy at different points. My mind experienced “monkey mind” (as it’s called in meditation when the mind jumps to and from.) It became amusing to see just how far my mind could travel. It wanted to do everything from build my dream house to re-hash arguments from years ago to plan what I was going to do with the rest of my life. After many sittings just letting my mind “do its thing” I began to utilize some of the techniques the teachers had given us, like observing our thoughts with a non-judging mind and letting them pass, not ascribing truth or power to the thoughts. Finally by the third day I experienced I feeling of nothingness and openness in meditation, a first in my meditation practice.
1. Learn the language. This one project will help all aspects of everyday life. Ideally, we all would know the language before moving to a new country. However…that doesn’t always happen and didn’t really happen in my case. Even though I had had some 101 courses in French and German, for instance, I wasn’t comfortable in the language by any stretch of the imagination. However, I was able to take language classes once I went to live in Switzerland and Austria. These classes also provided some built in social contacts. 
Some of my favorite experiences in a new place have been renting a bike or taking a long hike around a nearby area of town. Roadtrips are also fun, especially with friends.
8. Start an initiative! Start a project in the community. When I lived in the Netherlands, I started a non-denominational children’s choir. Even though my Dutch skills were limited, it didn’t matter. About 12 kids and I met every Friday to learn folk and pop songs in a variety of languages. We even performed at a world peace day festival. The experience enriched my time in NL immensely!
