Off to Bulgaria!

Well, if you have read my About page, you will see that I have an insatiable appetite for traveling.  I’ve done a lot in my short life, and I plan to do MUCH more!  My last major trip (major trips to me are ones where I leave the continent), was in 2008, so I am VERY due for some major travel and adventure!

It’s kind of interesting because the amount that I have traveled, and the experiences that I have had, have been a bit of an interesting sore point for me.  NOT in the sense that I regret any of my experiences, but somewhere along the line, I became worried that people would judge me differently if they knew how much traveling I had done.  As if they wouldn’t like me, or they would feel like I was a know it all, or a show off.  In a sense, I became small, so that others wouldn’t feel uncomfortable around me.

As a kid I did tons of traveling with my parents, always off to the Caribbean, Hawaii, or other hot destinations in the winter.  My parents pulled me out of school all the time, and I never suffered one bit.  I would always tackle my homework on the plane heading to our final destination, and usually be finished by the time we got to where we were going.

Consequently, I quite frequently had a nice suntan when I got back to freezing Canada.  Other kids would make fun of me and make reference to me being rich, or spoiled or whatever.  Obviously, looking back, I now realize that they were just jealous.  But, I think this started a voice in my head that told me to down play my experiences in order to make others feel more comfortable.   This has carried forward into my adult life, and it’s only been recently that I have realized that my playing small, serves no purpose at all.  The following quote by Marianne Williamson perfectly sums up my situation, and definitely helped to get me to the point that I am at now.

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.  Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.  It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.  We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?  Actually, who are you not to be?  You are a child of God.  Your playing small does not serve the world.

There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.  We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.  It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone.  And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.  As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

Now, I realize using the “God” word may confuse the issue with some people.  This is a reference to our spirit, our Aura, our energy, whatever you want to call that higher power that resides over us that helps us to find our paths in life.  But I am sure you can see past that word, to realize the message.  YOUR playing small does not serve the world, just as much as MY playing small does not serve the world!

And so, in my 40th year around the sun (I turned 39 last month), I have decided that it is time.  It is time to STOP playing small.  It is time to get back on track and live life to the fullest, it is time to be my true authentic self, and it is time to let everyone know about it!

On November 30th, my partner Chris and I are off to Europe for 40 days (yes, just a coincidence that the trip happened to be 40 days!).  He has never left the continent, so there is a huge world that is about to open up in front of him, and quite frankly, I can’t wait to be witness to it.

I myself have not seen much of Europe (only small stints in England to visit grandparents as a kid), so I am over the moon with excitement to truly experience new places and new cultures.

We are flying in to Bulgaria, and then will make our way down to Greece, back up to Northern Italy for New Years, and then back to Bulgaria where we will have 5 days of skiing in Bansko, before heading back to Canada.

The way we travel will also be a new experience for me as we will be Couch Surfing (www.couchsurfing.com) and Wwoofing (www.wwoof.com), staying with locals, working on farms and really getting to the nitty gritty of the places we are visiting, by learning about places from the locals perspective.

Please sign up to follow my blog if you are interested about our travels.  I will be posting lots of pictures and updating frequently.

Welcome to our journey, where we will be Wandering and Wondering our way around South East Europe!