A New Adventure

Welcome to the new letters. :)

They're just like the old letters - the only thing that's changed is the adventure.

Two and a half years ago, I got on a one-way flight, set out across the world, and had only one goal: live deeply and authentically. I lived in Thailand, Mexico, Colombia, Spain, Rwanda, Thailand (again), Argentina, France, and Japan.  

Then I flew to New Zealand.

When I first got there, the landing was rough.  The culture felt off, the people incomprehensible, and I honestly couldn't tell up from down for the first time in my entire travels.

I'm a person who lives with a built-in timeline - I can generally see the past falling behind me, and the future up ahead: a clarion line stretching from where I am now to where I'll go.  In NZ though, the future was hazy.  No cliff or sudden end, just fog.

Then I fell in love.

For everyone who's been reading the past three months, you've watched me tumble and spin and be unsure and not know which way was up.  You've watched me lose my words, my bearings, my grounding, and my direction.

And as often happens to us, I spun and shifted and fell until I hit something.  Bedrock. Grounded and grounding.

And I stopped. 

My bedrock was the southwestern US desert; a book from my partner's work thanking them for five years of world-changing work after being willing to throw it all away and embark on a new adventure; letting go of my dog's ashes, my storage unit full of things, my - in the words of U2 - "All that you can't leave behind". 

Now.

Now, 35,000 feet in the air flying to a place that feels - newly - like home.

Now, a next new adventure.

If there's one thing I've been cognizant of in this relationship - one I think that will last my life - it's the tick tick tick of time.  Knowing each second we get is the only one like that we'll see, and knowing deeply, deeply, that there simply aren't enough of them.

This is life, right?  To love deeply, to lose what you love, and to keep on picking yourself up, throwing yourself in, and loving again.

So welcome, with me, to these new letters - ones that surprise even me in where they're heading.

A few weeks ago, I took a big pause - a deep breath to make a space for the what's next to start to grow, put in roots, and take shape.

And in that pause, the next direction for Ink and Feet and these letters has started to form itself.

I'll be bringing in other voices - new perspectives on life, travel, meaning, and authenticity.   We'll be making things together, growing together, and navigating this crazy joyus ship as a collective group.

I'm so excited to get to share and to hear these folks with you, to have a wider view into the world and life, and to see through other eyes into the stuff that really matters.

There are some things I know - like that the letter will still show up in your inbox most Sundays (but maybe not every one), and that I'll still be writing and contributing as one of those voices.

But it's also going to be a collective enterprise - and not even I can tell you where we're going.  :) 

So buckle up, grab your favorite beverage, and settle in - it's time for our next big adventure. :)

See you next week,

-Steven

p.s. The best thing I read all week was this hilarous, wide-ranging interview with David Letterman. He used to have a pretty big TV show. Now he has a ginormous beard.