Oh my, it’s hard to believe how many months have gone by since I wrote. I’m not sure why I have been avoiding it, since I do love to write. Perhaps I got bored with myself!

This is the volcano that erupted while I was there and was in the news!

I spent three glorious months in Hawaii and it was one of the happiest times in my life, short of giving birth to my son! Hawaii was transformational for me in a way I couldn’t have imagined and what I realized is because all the time I was there, I lived fully in the present moment. I had no past and no future while I was there. I simply had each day as it came and went. I saw some of the most spectacular sunrises and sunsets and I listened to the waves crashing on the shoreline as I worked. I loved just the thought of being on an island in the middle of the ocean, finding it to be quite soothing. I spent time on four islands — Oahu, Kauai, Maui and Hawaii. I saw whales and dolphins close-up, swam with giant sea turtles, tried scuba diving, walked along the edge of an active volcano, saw Hawaii from a helicopter, went hiking and exploring. I lived every day in shorts and tank top — it was heaven! Somehow, my grief from the past few years simply melted away into a distant memory. So much so, that I was fearful of returning to the mainland. But, I did return at the end of January and the reality of life began again.

My final sunset in Hawaii.

Upon my return, I spent time in Reno and Marin catching up with my work colleagues and friends, then, I spent 5 days on a spiritual retreat at Mt Madonna in the mountains outside of Santa Cruz, CA. At the end of March, I traveled to Switzerland where I spent a week in the Alps with friends and a long weekend at Lake Garda, Italy. Both places were stunning. Switzerland had not been on my bucket list to see, but I am so glad I went! Being at the top of the Swiss Alps is absolutely amazing! It’s incredibly vast and pristine, peaceful. It’s like being on a totally different planet. Lake Garda is where local Europeans go to get out of the summer heat. We were there early in the season, but it was beautiful, nonetheless. My favorite village on the lake was Lazise which is a very old walled Roman city. Inside the walls are quaint boutiques and restaurants along cobble-stoned streets on the shore of the lake surrounded by the Italian Alps. It’s just like out of a travel magazine.

Swiss Alps — on top of the world!

Lake Garda, Italy

Shortly upon returning from Europe, I embarked on a 6-week travel tour across the U.S. I spent several weeks in El Paso, Tx with my family to celebrate my mom’s 80th birthday. I wanted to spend extended time there to see if I could realistically consider living there longer-term, at least temporarily, given my mom’s aging. A part of me wished I could be closer so I could be more helpful to her and her husband. However, try as I might, I could not convince myself that I would be happy living there. I would be miserable there as much as I enjoy spending time with my family. It is too desolate an area for me and so drenched in fear — walled yards and barred windows, people proud to be carrying guns, guard dogs at many houses. I had to think twice about whether it was safe for me to take evening walks by myself even though I think I stayed in a relatively safe neighborhood. It’s a way of life there that you should always be looking over shoulder and can’t trust anyone. I don’t want to live like that. I am truly grateful that I had several weeks to spend with my family, which I did pretty much every night. I rented a house large enough for my son and my sister to stay with me for a short time and it had a fabulous kitchen where we had family dinners almost every night.

After making a brief pitstop in Minnesota, I traveled on to the East coast where I spent several weeks including New York for business, Connecticut to visit my sister and Philadelphia for business. It’s great to be traveling for business again, making new connections and re-connecting with “old” colleagues.

I returned to the Bay Area in mid-May for a week, then to Incline Village for a week before driving to Boise, ID to attend my future daughter-in-law’s bridal shower. I have been in Boise for a week and leave here to spend two weeks in Sun Valley for my son’s wedding in mid-June.

Then what? Well, I believe my journeys are coming to an end as, I think, I have exhausted my lust for globetrotting incessantly. I find myself seriously considering having my own home and settling down. I miss having a closet to hang my clothes, LoL!I Mostly, I miss having a routine and being connected to my own community. It’s funny because I never wanted to own my own home, always had an aversion to the responsibility of owning a house but, now, I find that thought more appealing than renting. Could it be that the impermanence of all my traveling has ignited a desire to actually have something that is mine? All this time, I have been living in other people’s spaces, which I haven’t minded, yet now I yearn to have a place that I can truly make my own.