Long exposure, bouncing through Hawaii Volcanoes National Park on May 2nd
You may have noticed that some of our posts aren’t about travel per se. Although Brian and I are on a round-the-world trip, we’re still on our personal journeys through life, independently and together, and we’ll be posting about those here as well.
We are what you you might call seekers. Of course we are, you could say. Who else would leave behind the comforts of home and the safety of good jobs to see the world and discover new things? Well, that’s just the beginning.
We both left our careers in Silicon Valley. Brian is fairly certain he’s identified his life’s work, but he’s not sure what direction he’ll take to pursue it. Me, I have no clue about my life’s work or what’s next for me, career-wise. I guess you could say I have clues, but either the big picture isn’t clear or I’m being willfully obtuse about it. I have too many interests, possibilities and ideas to settle just yet. Brian has three years on me, though, so maybe everything will become blissfully clear when I’m 35. I can always hope!
For the past several years, we’ve also been working to improve our health and fitness. Thanks to a healthy eating workshop we took in 2009, we generally eat local, organic foods with simple ingredients (bye-bye, high fructose corn syrup and incomprehensible additives!). Brian also runs regularly and is currently training for the Kona half-marathon, I take zumba classes and we share a regular yoga practice. At 6’4″ and 180-ish lbs, Brian is almost at his target weight. I have a little more work to do, but I’m working toward my goal.
Spiritually, we’re also seeking. We want to know the meaning of life and how the universe works, which has led to our study of metaphysics and the law of attraction. The latter was a big eye-opener for me! Anyone who knew me in college could attest to my general negativity (which, of course, I claimed was realism at the time). I’ve worked hard over the past several years to recognize and come to terms with how my attitude (ahem…vibration) drew certain people and events — both good and bad — into my life. As little as three years ago, I had a basic understanding of the secret, but I still thought that bad things were happening to me not because of me. Although I’m not perfect at maintaining alignment with my conscious intentions even now, I am able to take responsibility for everything that happens in my life, even when I don’t like it. This is huge for me!
As we continue our journeys, we’ll be updating you on our progress and new ideas. And, although we’re pretty committed to metaphysics, we’ll try not to get too woo-woo on you. We hope you enjoy the ride.
We’d love to hear your story as well, so share away! Are you a seeker? What are you exploring in your personal journey?
Aloha,
Jody Yarborough - Hey Kate,
Thanks for writing. So yeah, I mean I thought I would like Disqus, but
when I actually went to use it as a commentor, I would like it better if
you could option out of having to register to the service just to leave
a comment. Did you know it was that way? That you can’t just comment
anonymously, you HAVE To register as a user with Disqus. I commented
this to Andrew and he said it was a detraction for him for the one time
he did comment to you about your contest, and he has already forgotten
his login and password. lol
Not that the whole world is based on Andrew types… but, ya know. I
think Disqus has the potential to be great for people who have a
well-established blog and are part of a large blog network themselves. I
think it is a great tool feature for bloggers just for the reasons you
list. But for non-bloggers and just general comment generation (which is
what I think you are wanting right now) it may be counter productive.
But enough about that! Glassblowing! Sounds exciting. You are in a good
place for it, among the land of fire and volcanoes. 🙂 Wonder if they
will let you photograph inside the studio (not that you might want to) I
just think glass and glass blowing art is so pretty. What else are you
up to these days? Like what is your typical Thursday like? My assumption
is a lot of reading, sight-seeing and beach lounging.
Life is going okay here. My heart is still aching a bit from losing
Ernie. But I am keeping busy with work, and working on getting my blogs
up and running. (Thank you for being such a great support and fan! I
really appreciate it! I love that we can be that for each other even
across the miles) Tomorrow night Drew and I are going to see the opening
of Sex and the City.
Okay, I’ll stop rambling now.
Hugs,
Jody
Kate - Hi Cassandra: I'm only repeating what you've told me! But if that's helping to inspire you to explore your own calling, that's cool. You have a lot of really positive, meaningful impact in my life, too. Thank you!
I agree that blogging about whatever you want feels best, and will have to keep telling myself that when doubt creeps in. I think that's why I lost interest with my old blog – I was too cautious about what I wrote. Cheers
Kate - Thanks, Jody!
Really, you don't like Disqus? We'll definitely have to give that some thought. I like that it has replies direct to each person and will capture all of your comments on various Disqus-supported blogs in one central location where you can log in and view them, but…if it's discouraging comments, we definitely don't like that. I would like something where you can subscribe to subsequent comments, too, though.
I've definitely had some jobs that I have no intention of repeating, so yes that's helps. At the moment, I'm into exploring other art forms. I'm so excited (and a little nervous) to be taking a glassblowing class later this summer. And thanks for reinforcing something Cassandra's told me before: that my “calling” can change. I don't know why I assume that it's a fixed thing, but I always have. Glad to hear you're pretty content and settled in your own career these days!
Kate - Thanks, Mama Tee! I like your no-nonsense approach to getting Brian back in the game. I couldn't find a Maui on the Cheap, but if you Google that term, you'll find some articles in the LA Times travel section with ideas. Have a great trip!
Jody Yarborough - Great blog Kate. I wrote a longer comment but I wasn't logged in to this Disqus thing and now it's gone 🙁 If you want more comments you might consider disabling this feature for a while and going back to just the basic commenter. Some people might be discouraged by having to sign up to disqus to leave a comment.
Aside from that part of what my original comment said is that I too, can identify with being a seeker. Even though I am feeling more settled in my career path, I am constantly wanting to seek out new things, experiences, learning things, conversations. Things of personal growth and renewal. I also deeply believe in the laws of attraction. I'm wondering though, as you try to think about and decide what your (career) path will be, do you know for sure what you don't want it to be? Sometimes that can help provide direction. But besides that, who says you have to just pick one thing? You can be a photographer for five years, then do something else for five years, then something else…. Hugs!! Jody
Coach Cassandra Rae - Oh, Kate, thank you for sharing how your Calling can change! You really are inspiring me to explore my own Calling. You have so much more of an impact on me than I’ve expressed and I’m so grateful for you. *hugs*
About Disqus…I use it because I like how it organizes comments into threads making it easy to have conversations instead of a random bunch of comments. I will also check my settings and make sure you don’t have to log in to comment. Oh! I also love how I can share my comments on Twitter & Facebook with a link to the blog post. What a great way to invite others to add to the conversation :~)
Coach Cassandra Rae - Oh I love hearing the woo-woo stuff :~)
I just returned from a 4 day women’s retreat and one of the message that came through the experience was:
Blog about whatever you want to blog about no matter how woo-woo and trust that you will engage with the perfect peeps and all will unfold beautifully.
Ah…I like that! It’s too much pressure to worry about what I think people will want to read and comment on. It’s so much easier to simply speak from my heart about the topics I am interested in.
Kate - Thanks, Danielle! Good to hear from you. Are you thinking you might take off from the valley one day? Do tell!
Kate - Thanks, Danielle! Good to hear from you. Are you thinking you might take off from the valley one day? Do tell!
Terri A - Ok Brian, here is a comment so get back to work. Kate, dont you hate how easy it seems for guys to be at their “target” weight…I have been searching for mine for 30 years.
By the way, think there is a “Maui on the cheap?” I'll be there in 3 weeks…
Danielle - Keep on writing! We love reading about your explorations and the adventures you have. You could say we are living vicariously through your fearlessness to take off from the valley!
Danielle - Keep on writing! We love reading about your explorations and the adventures you have. You could say we are living vicariously through your fearlessness to take off from the valley!