Dreams to Live By

Many dreams come true and some have silver linings. I live for my dreams and a pocket full of gold.

Led Zeppelin

I like this idea of a having just a pocket full of gold or the equivalent, cold hard local currency of wherever I happen to be at the time; enough to get by and enough to make my dreams come true. I think it happened about birth or something like a lifetime ago that my motivation was never to amass a fortune for the sake of fortune, but living for my dreams. Living for my passions, has always been my idea of fortunate living.My readers and close friends know, as I’ve shared before, that I constantly teeter on the edge of sharing/posting/writing and radio silence. Some days and weeks I don’t write. I force myself to stay in the social media loop because I genuinely love my community and am inspired by their pursuits, their sharing back and any positive impact on their lives I may have. Hearing from you, my readers, my friends, our community, motivates and inspires me to continue living my dreams. It’s getting notes like this one from readers that keep me connected and wanting to share: "I am already very much enjoying your journey and insights.  The monthly newsletter really spoke to me.  I will be re-reading it again (and again), and using some of your tips in my daily life.  Thank you for sharing so freely of yourself and your wisdom.  Wishing you continued happy, safe, awe-inspiring, and educational journeys!"Every message I receive inspires me. You see, I have experienced a decent amount of guilt since I "closed down" therapy shop in Naples and hit the skies, lands + waters of the world to pursue my own dream. I write because I feel compelled to share and inspire, but I often wonder if I'm doing enough to serve.'I ride the fine line between doing and being; serving others and serving myself. It's a balance. It's a funky dance.Stephen Stills and Curtis wrote in the iconic Crosby, Stills and Nash song, "Southern Cross", "spirits are using me, larger voices calling". I have been called to see the world in all its glory, grace and complicated messiness. Larger voices have called me to go for a long time, but excuses held me back; schooling, kids, career, FOMO, blah blah blah. What I am learning is that all of these opportunities don’t have to be mutually exclusive. We CAN do it all. We owe it to ourselves to be inspired by our own lives, not merely watching others’ unfold on TV and movies. We get to create our dreams exactly how we want them, and we are allowed to live them completely!We are also allowed to change our minds constantly. I am creating my dreams and following them as I go; and that's exactly what I want for all of my clients, students, friends and mentees. My passion pool would eventually drain dry if I wasn't continually filling it with the liquid gold of my own pursuits, so yes I am off and away, but still moved to share my journey with others wanting to design their ideal lives and needing that extra nudge to do so! There may never be a better time to follow your dreams. Do it now!So, I was a little nervous the few days before we left…so much to do. It will never get done. The hamster wheeler of spinning thoughts in my head…so it goes and goes.But dropping into a place, really feeling and experiencing it’s power and magic is transformative. Paradisiacal Polynesia will heal that frenetic hamster-cage-thinking thing, for sure.French Polynesia is about as dreamy as it gets. I mean, there should be an entire language of new words to describe the captivating beauty and exotic hue of colors, not to mention the smells. Oh, the Tiare flower, that Taha’a vanilla and the Bora Bora blues! We do not have sufficient words to describe the treasured sights, smells and tastes these islands offer.A week in Mo’orea and stories of dream-chasing emerged numerous times, from the elderly French woman who finally followed her dream in her 70’s to rent a house on the water’s edge of Mo’orea, to the marine mammal scientist Dr. Michael Poole who decided he wanted to live in French Polynesia to study marine mammals, so settled himself here 28 years ago, to our new Swedish friends traveling the world with their teenaged sons, and us, of course, traveling the world in our unique way.It’s not enough to have dreams. We have to live them. I’ll be honest; I have woken up many days in the past year with a buzz in my belly and a worry in my mind, questioning my decision. What am I doing? Is this fair to my children to take them away from their friends, school and structure? How can we afford it? I am a professional psychoanalyst and lord knows if I could charge myself, I’d have amassed a fortune by now. But that nagging voice begging to do, produce and get things done is starting to loosen it’s grip on my mind and I’m yielding to a slower rhythm and living with less effort.Running is easier, parenting is easier, relaxing (!!!) is easier; life is pretty damn pleasant at this pace.I get a lot of questions about how we can afford to travel as much as we do, how do we decide where to go and what to do once we get there. If you know anything about us, we seek adventurous, often off-beaten-path, natural places. Opportunities to engage with locals, avoid mass tourists, kitesurf, hike and run are always on the top of the list! Stay posted on our world travel tips here at this blog…more to come on the hows/do’s/where-to’s.Our first stop on our ten-month journey around the world began in Los Angeles and landed us 7+ hours later in Pape’ete, Tahiti. Did you know there are 118 islands in French Polynesia? We were headed for the Archipel de la Societie (The Society Islands). There are 4 other achipelagos, The Tuamotus,Gambiers, Marquesas and Austral islands. French Polynesia spans 4.5 million km in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. That’s about 1.9 million square miles. Million. The small taste of what we experienced left me believing there was tons more to explore and experience here for a lifetime.Dreams have a way of changing a person. You know you are fully immersed in a place when you are dreaming in the language. I guess I am speaking the language of the sea, as I dreamed of dolphins visiting me in my sleep and floating effortlessly alongside them, held peacefully in time and space.I didn’t think Mo’orea could be beat, but after a week on the island, the waters and wind were calling and we ditched our land plans for another week on Mo’orea, willingly incurring the cancelation feeand found ourselves a sailing catamaran to charter for a week to the islands of Huahine, Raiatea, Taha’a and Bora Bora. In my opinion, there is no better way to arrive on Bora Bora than with the wind at your back and the sails flying high above.Stay tuned for more details and photos above and below the sea so you can plan your adventure to French Polynesia. Who knows, I might just have to join you!In loving-kindness,