Travel...

I am inspired to write. Something about travel from place to place, just sets my creative fire alight. I am filled with images; people typing on laptops on the floor in the airport, teenagers with their backs turned to their families – enduring vacation with parents they can’t stand, babies sleeping in their mothers arms until they get on the flight; everyone just waiting to get to where they are going. I love the energy of the airport.

I can’t wait for my next adventure. Seattle for two days… the Pacific Northwest welcoming me back for the second time in less than a year. What a thrill! My travel inspiration colors the words I write – my fingers are barely able to contain the energy pulsing through me with anticipation of an upcoming trip. From start to finish, traveling somewhere (yes, even my trip to North Dakota this past spring), provides me with an adrenaline incomparable to anything else in my current existence. I want to go – be on the move, brush shoulders with the world in my fervor to get somewhere different or unfamiliar.

How excited am I to just go…

Wellness, for me is about these things. Travel and writing and embracing my desire for motion and change; my balance is restored with the dream of flying somewhere. I prioritize my daily life better when I have a goal. I enjoy my conversations with the people in my life. I smile more and treasure the moments for what they are. My mind stops whirring and I focus on the details. How I pack my suitcase is more reflective of my heart than how I organize my dresser drawers ;) Something that irritates Heather, I am sure. I don’t just want to go though. I want to go and come back. Ahhh, heaven…

Moving on...

Well, after seven years, I am leaving the school. I have loved my time teaching massage therapy and learning about health and healing. But for the last few years, I have found a longing to be more out in the world. Obviously a trip to Thailand helped to scratch that itch for me - yet I found myself left wanting upon my return. So, Heather and I decided to move to the Pacific Northwest - Oregon to be specific. We both want to keep growing, and have educational and career opportunities to pursue out there.

So - decisions were made, friends and family were told, and we have been working on the house to put it on the market again in the spring. She graduates in May, and the plan was to take off as soon as she secured a job as a nurse. However, sometimes the universe intervenes...

In addition to massage therapy, I have been teaching aromatherapy and herbalism classes. These are two out of three "passions" I have in the arena of health. I could talk about these subjects at length without tiring of the topic. Before I went to massage therapy school, I took classes and workshops and read books about aromatherapy - it led me to massage, in a way. So, finding a job (and one that pays well) teaching aromatherapy was never something I thought I would have.

But I stumbled across a job opening with a natural product company based here in Iowa. Basically, I get to travel all over the U.S., teaching consumers and store managers and any interested parties about aromatherapy. I have used and loved this company's products and essential oils for years and I have loved the company from afar (a very reputable company that is known to be good to and for the planet and to and for their employees), and now I get to work there. Traveling, teaching, smelling essential oils... could a dream become reality? I think so. I am heading to Seattle at the beginning of October, and then Florida at the end of October. To say I am excited is the understatement of the year.

I am sad to leave the school. It has become my home and my coworkers have become my family. But, I must grow and move and keep changing in order to truly be me. I feel blessed for the time I have had there, but I leave knowing that growth is happening for the school too, and it's a great feeling. Life is truly good.

So for now, the move to the Northwest is postponed. I am just keeping my heart and mind and eyes open for all of the potential and possibilities out there for me. And I am moving on...