Happy 7th Re-Birthday to Me!

Happy 7th Re-Birthday to Me! 

Seven years ago today, I fully embraced that this is it. This is the real deal. This is life. It's happening right now, and I need to fully accept responsibility for how I live that life. Seven years ago, I resolved to accept responsibility for living my own life. No longer would I trudge through the days wishing I could be someone else, doing something else, somewhere else. I was going to be that person, doing my thing, right here, right now.

I choose to live a life filled with happiness, joy, and fulfillment. The quest to live this life hasn't been easy. I've had to cover my ears to deafen myself from the Sirens who beckon me into a world that praises conformity to cultural conditioning. I've had to forge new paths where no paths previously existed. I've had to bring myself to say "no" to opportunities I would have jumped on in my previous life. But in all of this, I've emphatically said "YES" to creating more space and energy for living the life I want to live.

My seventh re-birthday finds me reflecting on my experiences of the past year, experiences that have brought me happiness, joy, and fulfillment:

• I became car-free.
• I implemented a daily ritual of writing in a Gratitude Journal.
• I lived in Guatemala for two and a half months, working to improve my Spanish language skills.
• I completed and reflected upon my year of self love.
• I acquired a new Surly Disc Trucker.
• I travelled to West Virginia for a week of biking, trail running, and van living.
• I pedaled 1200 miles through the last Frontier, falling in love with Alaska.
• I staffed Adventure Cycling's Cycle Montana and Cycle the Divide events.
• I met Ethel MacDonald -- a legend whose acquaintance I had been patiently awaiting for more than two years!
• I spent one month cycling from Whitefish to Bellingham, the long way.
• I led Adventure Cycling's Inaugural Pacific Northwest & Gulf Islands Tour, a trip that I had developed two years prior.
• I designed five new bicycle trips for Discovery Bicycle Tours and spent two weeks scouting two of these route: Idaho Trails and Crater Lake & Scenic Bikeways.
• I developed a greater bond to Bellingham, thanks to a three-week housesit.
• I had the great pleasure of loving nine kitties (Mia, Midnight, Haida, Jasper, Sophie, Ricki, Commissioner Gordon, Judo, and Jakki) over four weeks of housesitting. 
• I flew, along with my folding bike, in a Cessna 150 to Lopez Island...twice!
• I led Discovery Bicycle Tour's Woodstock & Upper Valley and Lake Champlain Islands tours.
• I tutored 12 students in business writing, enabling me to get my fix for teaching.

The last year has been enlightening for me. Since my re-birth, I have taken active responsibility for living my own life. In an ironic twist, I've come to decrease my attachment to that responsibility; I've found that the more I loosen my grip on steering my life, the more wondrously the universe guides me. And, wow, the universe has far more magnificence in mind for me than I ever could have fathomed!

Seven years is a long time to live a peripatetic lifestyle. Recently, I've been feeling an urge to plant roots -- to establish a place where I can build community and invest more deeply in relationships. A vague image of this "place" is starting to emerge in my mind. But until this image gains clarity, I will continue to remain open-minded and heed the nudges of the universe. I've been learning: everything in its right time. When the time is right, I will embark on my next chapter.

Happy 7th Re-Birthday to me! Here's to another revolution around the sun!