My time away has allowed lots of time for reflection. A trip back to Scotland seeing my nearest and dearest always stirs me up emotionally as I’m given a glimpse of what my ‘other life’ could look like. It’s a life filled with my favourite people and favourite places in the world and it feels like an endless summer.
As you can imagine, when reflecting on your life in this way, the one question that keeps coming to mind is “what’s important?”. Seeing our small family and my oldest and dearest friends felt “extremely important”. Those people are in my thoughts day-in and day-out so to see them and connect with them after 6 years felt incredible. A lot has happened in those 6 years – for all of us. And yet somehow, I felt we shared those ups and downs across the miles – such is our bond.
It’s always going to be tricky though because back in Australia I have the rest of my little family and those little hearts, wings and pawprints that are “extremely important” to me too, so my heart feels permanently torn in half. That feeling of being torn is always so much worse once I come back here. I always enter a stage of grief that grips my throat and heart for a couple of weeks, no doubt compounded by jet lag – a tiredness that feels way beyond my control.
At such times, living in gratitude is what matters – particularly when you are experiencing the ‘sad’ emotions or feeling disconnected. It’s important to get outside – no matter the weather. It’s important to connect with the soil and the plants and to re-integrate yourself with the energies in and around your home. It’s important to “notice” the little things around you by bringing your awareness to the tiniest details. It’s important to be thankful for at least three things in your life, to counteract the pain of the “what if”. It’s important to challenge your inner narrative too. If you feel disconnected, what is it that makes you feel connected? “Focus on that instead – or “notice” “Notice” that instead.
It’s through those moments I remind myself that though I am torn, I am also blessed. We have a plan to make those trips back to Scotland either more frequent or longer. This seems like a best of both worlds approach, rather than an all or nothing one on either side of the world. I can cope knowing my life and love will ebb and flow between the two farthest poles, connected (not separated) by the oceans in between.
All this thinking time led me to ponder my businesses, and again the question, “what’s important?” forces it’s way to the foreground. But, more on that in my next post. For now, I am “noticing” everything again, and easing myself back into life in Tasmania – with gratitude.
I encourage you to go out into the world and “notice” the tiniest thing you can possibly notice – and then give gratitude for its very existence. Do this again and again over many days. You will soon feel the sadness you are experiencing shift.
Sending you blessings of love and light xxx