Goodbye for now

Currently in the Don Mueang International airport. Off to Yangon in just two short hours.

In Yangon, I feel my real adventure awaits.

Thailand has been a real blessing in my life so far and an entirely beautiful experience. In Thailand, I appreciate the kindness, feeling safe, the small comforts (from coffee to wifi), and most of all the moments I fell in love with the place (too numerous to count). In the midst of the coup, the curfew, everything, Thailand has given me a chance to explore a place without much restraint and for that I am thankful. I’ll be back again in 28 days, but for now, I feel sad to go.

Monsoon days, heat waves, and all are waiting for me in Yangon (and the rest of the country) and I’m ready. Its truly a strange thing to be living out a long time dream of mine. Burma//Myanmar has been in my thoughts and dreams for years and it doesn’t seem real that I finally get to go.

I’m off to explore another new place and throw myself in to something I deeply care about.

Internet won’t be available most of the time, so, for now . . .

Just adventure well.

“To venture causes anxiety, but not to venture is to lose one’s self…. And to venture in the highest is precisely to be conscious of one’s self.”- Soren Kierkegaard

Edge

 

“I want to stand as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can’t see from the center.”

– Kurt Vonnegut, Player Piano 

[Photo: Friends down by the Chisang River, Nepal//Grace Farson]

A letter to mom

Dear TT,

First of all, I cannot even begin to tell you just how EXCITED I am to spend the next two weeks with you in INDIA. I’m thrilled to be spending your Birthday in the place I love ever so much!

I sure hope you’re ready for THIS. All of it! This is going to be one of the greatest adventures of your life.

Some things to remember before you go:

• You’re about to learn patience like you never knew before. If big, bad, wonderful India teaches you one thing, its PATIENCE.
• Be prepared for everything, but expect nothing
• Allow yourself to FEEL. Feel everything. Don’t be scared of feeling.
  
• Be shocked. Be scared. Be joyful. And laugh when there is nothing else to do!
• This is nothing like you’re familiar with and there is nothing you can do to prepare yourself for this. . . but, have no fear!
• When INDIA is good, it is the BEST
• None of this will ever seem real. When we get back home, this entire journey will seem like a dream. It will all be hard to imagine or come to terms with. . .
• Don’t worry. Don’t you worry about a thing!
  
• Just be.

Relax into all this and let India take you by surprise! We’re about to share something remarkable// eye-opening// and life-changing. . . and I cannot think of anyone on earth I’d rather spend these next two weeks with!

I’m still just in shock this is finally happening!

Thanks for always trusting me. Thanks for taking risks and for being bold ALWAYS.

And most of all, thank you for loving me fully.

Bon voyage and see you in a few days!

I LOVE YOU TO THE MOON AND BACK,

Grace

What life looks like these days

Bright. Beautiful. Big.

Our days are full of adventures -> in a new place -> in a new language -> in the heat -> in fields -> in forests . . .

And I couldn’t ask for much more than that right now.

“I carry your heart with me (I carry it in my heart)I am never without it (anywhere
I go you go,my dear; and whatever is done by only me is your doing,my darling)
I fear no fate (for you are my fate,my sweet)I want no world (for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart

I carry your heart (I carry it in my heart)” – e. e. Cummings

[Photos: Around Letang, Nepal//Grace Farson]

What remains

Evidence.

There is always a reward in stopping the car and exploring new spaces.

Today, I am thankful for warmer days than these and for these three people.

[Photos: What is left behind. Outside of Washington, D.C.//Grace Farson]

North Carolina mud

On Saturday, I finally had [part] of the day off. I spent my free time going to yoga, eating at Weaver, and tramping through the woods [at mud] with Ora, Bill, and Kitty for a project.

It was all better than good.

[Photos: Saturday adventures//Grace Farson]

first hazy indonesian sunrise

“an adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. an inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered.”

– g. k. chesterton

---

this was my first of many incredible sunrises and sunsets in indo.

i’ve been thinking a lot these days about why i am attracted to what i am and what i want out of this life. i know deep down that i was born to wander, take my time, and never take for granted the little joys in life.

i like:

* this article

* this picture {and the wall of framed pictures behind them}

* an old photo of mine was shared on a blog i love!

* this haunting song