Solo Travel & Freedom

Did you go to New Zealand by yourself? I can’t even drive to the airport alone without major anxiety! That was me, in my forties, until two years ago.

I moved to New York from Israel when I was eight years old. This was the first time I was on an airplane and the beginning of my love affair with travel. The big buildings, the mélange of languages, the smell of roasted chestnuts; it was easy to fall in love with NYC.

Shortly thereafter my family started taking road trips throughout the U.S.; small cities, big cities, waffles with ice…

I feel like the only person who didn’t start baking this year.

If your newsfeeds looked anything like mine in 2020, every soul across the globe seems to have started baking from sourdough to cookies to every variety imaginable and beyond of challah; sesame, cinnamon, chocolate, rainbow-colored, you name it! With restaurants at limited capacity or closed and people at home with way too much time on their hands, ovens have gotten their spotlight in 2020.

I, however, channeled my creative energy outside the kitchen and onto a keyboard; bringing my insides out and giving my words wings.

Writing became…

You meet her. You feel all the feels and all the butterflies. You decide she’s the one, put a ring on her finger, and live happily ever after. The End.

And then you wake up to your cluttered home with a heap of unpaid bills, a princess in sweatpants that you only see in passing between kids and work, and resentment and power struggles that replaced the butterflies years ago. Good morning, have a great day.

It turns out that marriage is hard work and that happily ever after is just make-believe. When pretend-play is over and you’re in the…

Forgiveness is the
Art of letting go; set free
What no longer serves.

Forgiveness is love
To my heart, soul; a gift of
Peace from me to me.

Forgiveness renews
Our focus, releasing the
Past so we can leap!

Forgiveness is a gift of peace. It makes us lighter. It heals.

Forgiveness allows you to move on and to move forward towards the life you imagine. Forgiveness is for you as much as, if not more, as for the other person. Whether or not they ‘deserve’ your forgiveness is irrelevant — because you deserve it.

You deserve a peaceful heart…

I’m back to myself
Writing, photographing ducks
Grasping for beauty.

When I feel out of sorts I feel disconnected from my inner self. I hate this feeling. It manifests for me as writer’s block and stagnation in other life areas. While I can’t force the words out, I can gently nudge them forth by stepping out into the world and engaging with it. I know how to recharge myself.

For me — nature is always the answer. It is my way back to myself.

When I’m feeling connected and in touch, I grasp for beauty everywhere and find it either…

When death surrounds me
I sink then rise to seize the
Day, celebrate life.

I know it sounds ironic, wrong even, but my mother taught me this when I lost my first friend in college. “Celebrate life today,” she said when I called to tell her. I didn’t get it.

I didn’t know then that pain and joy could coexist without negating one another. I’ve since learned they can.

Just last week, I learned of two childhood friends who died: one to COVID-19 and another to a heart attack. I hadn’t seen either one in well over twenty years, but…