A Dream Come True
Here I sit in Europe sipping my "koffie verkeer"(coffe with milk and sugar) looking across the city center of a small town in the south of the Netherlands. I almost can't believe the fact that I am finally here. It has been a long time that I have been wanting to experience life in Europe as an expatriate. I feel as if one day I will wake up from this dream and definitely embracing every moment of it.
I have been here for about a month now and the experience in the short time that I have had has been profound. There is something to be said about picking up your entire life and moving it across the sea. It is liberating, scary, joyful, exciting and completely transformational to your life. While you are in the process of getting ready for a move like this there are alot of things that you have to do; and you keep yourself so busy with the doing of things that you really don't realize the impact of what you are about to change in your life. I was so busy before I left home to come here with packing, saying goodbye to friends and family, explaining to certain friends why I need to do this for myself, closing accounts, making sure I was prepared in every way possible to start a new life in a new country. During which time I had a mixture of emotions of excitement, joy, happiness, sadness, fear , courage and overall peacefulness of my decision to make the leap of faith. Taking this kind of leap of faith is like none other that I had ever experienced in my life. Quite liberating!
Since I have been here, I have found myself verbally communicating less due to the fact that I am learning a totally new language, Dutch. Yes of course people speak English but not everywhere I have been going. I can understand people when they talk to me for the most part but I have noticed that I listen more and pay more attention to the unspoken communication we as human beings communicate with all the time. I guess I am becoming a better listener now, which is always a great thing to be. There has been a variety of people that I have come in contact with , but one thing is a common thread; they all are aspiring to do something in this life, something that will make a bigger difference. I am interacting and meeting truly caring individuals and it is refreshing to experience this in a new land. As I go through my everyday life here I feel like I am listening more to my own inner intuition as well to help guide me on what I need to do for the day. My entire lifestyle has changed from having a car being able to go anywhere in just a few minutes and being lazy to a certain degree to now walking everywhere, riding a bike, riding the train, walking to the places I want to go to, including the bank, grocery store, post office, etc.. You know those common places we just hop in the car and go to, for me now it is all about walking to these places for a purpose. I think that might what my life is changing into, acting with purpose. To take an action with purpose feels much different then the doing that I have been doing for a very long time in my life. I think to a certain degree I have been doing unconsciously . This is part of the liberation experience I mentioned earlier.
I have been doing alot more reflection and journaling since I have been here. That is partly why I decided to start a new blog for my journey here in Holland. I feel like I am at a time in my life that I probably won't get the opportunity to experience again and want to share it and document as much of it as possible. This transition is so important and crucial to the person that I am becoming in this world. I know alot of people move around all the time across the lands and oceans and I wonder if more people are out there that are having similar experiences. Does it change and transform everyones life? I am sure it does on so many different levels. I have come to realize as human beings we are all the same at the core. We all cry, laugh, feel happy, have anger, disappointments etc.. The only thing that differs is how we express it whether it is in a book, letter, different language or hold it inside of us throughout our lives.
I had the great opportunity to visit Belgium last weekend. It is an absolutely beautiful country. I went to Brussels, Brugge and Gent. I absolutely fell in love with the place. I felt very drawn to go there as my first real trip while living in Europe. It was much more than I had ever hoped for. I had the great surprise of meeting a perfect stranger that was not so much a stranger to me. We spent hours over the entire weekend talking and sharing great conversations that I have not had in a very long time, if ever. That was a pivotal experience for me in my life. I had never met someone that I had so much in common with and to feel that comfortable with a "stranger" was a refreshing experience. This experience has changed me forever. It has opened me up to life in a new way that I believe will deepen my experience as a human being trying to find her way in life. We never know who we might meet along the way and how they will impact our lives and path. Just like we never know how much we might impact others either. I think this is so important in today's time to acknowledge and recognize the magic that happens in our lives whenever we can take the moment to do so. There is so much good in our lives that gets overshadowed by media, news, negativity, etc. I feel like I am learning to take a step back from that and get back to listening to my higher self, the one that knows about love and peace and how I can be an instrument of that in the world to always help other people as much as I possibly can and find the joy in that.
That I feel is the difference of the me now rather than the me say a year ago. I was very much in the middle of working on myself and trying to get to know what I was made of over the last few years. I had every opportunity to test the limits and now I am getting the opportunity to actually experience and apply what I have learned and continue growing and learning. I think we are all a work in progress in our lifetime and once you start embracing everyday as an individual gift, the surprises that await for you and the joy that really is in abundance around us is limitless and freeing.
I look forward to sharing more of my experiences while I am on this journey that I call my life now in a foreign land. I would love to hear from those of you that have similar experiences or just experiences that have been transformational.
In gratitude and peace. I thank each and every person I have met along the way and will meet in the future. And most of all I am very grateful for the family that I have. They have been a tremendous support to me during all of these changes. There is alot to be learned and alot to be given. I am ready for my part in the big picture of life and watching one of my dreams come true unfold.
Expressing gratitude and peace
Asha
I have been here for about a month now and the experience in the short time that I have had has been profound. There is something to be said about picking up your entire life and moving it across the sea. It is liberating, scary, joyful, exciting and completely transformational to your life. While you are in the process of getting ready for a move like this there are alot of things that you have to do; and you keep yourself so busy with the doing of things that you really don't realize the impact of what you are about to change in your life. I was so busy before I left home to come here with packing, saying goodbye to friends and family, explaining to certain friends why I need to do this for myself, closing accounts, making sure I was prepared in every way possible to start a new life in a new country. During which time I had a mixture of emotions of excitement, joy, happiness, sadness, fear , courage and overall peacefulness of my decision to make the leap of faith. Taking this kind of leap of faith is like none other that I had ever experienced in my life. Quite liberating!
Since I have been here, I have found myself verbally communicating less due to the fact that I am learning a totally new language, Dutch. Yes of course people speak English but not everywhere I have been going. I can understand people when they talk to me for the most part but I have noticed that I listen more and pay more attention to the unspoken communication we as human beings communicate with all the time. I guess I am becoming a better listener now, which is always a great thing to be. There has been a variety of people that I have come in contact with , but one thing is a common thread; they all are aspiring to do something in this life, something that will make a bigger difference. I am interacting and meeting truly caring individuals and it is refreshing to experience this in a new land. As I go through my everyday life here I feel like I am listening more to my own inner intuition as well to help guide me on what I need to do for the day. My entire lifestyle has changed from having a car being able to go anywhere in just a few minutes and being lazy to a certain degree to now walking everywhere, riding a bike, riding the train, walking to the places I want to go to, including the bank, grocery store, post office, etc.. You know those common places we just hop in the car and go to, for me now it is all about walking to these places for a purpose. I think that might what my life is changing into, acting with purpose. To take an action with purpose feels much different then the doing that I have been doing for a very long time in my life. I think to a certain degree I have been doing unconsciously . This is part of the liberation experience I mentioned earlier.
I have been doing alot more reflection and journaling since I have been here. That is partly why I decided to start a new blog for my journey here in Holland. I feel like I am at a time in my life that I probably won't get the opportunity to experience again and want to share it and document as much of it as possible. This transition is so important and crucial to the person that I am becoming in this world. I know alot of people move around all the time across the lands and oceans and I wonder if more people are out there that are having similar experiences. Does it change and transform everyones life? I am sure it does on so many different levels. I have come to realize as human beings we are all the same at the core. We all cry, laugh, feel happy, have anger, disappointments etc.. The only thing that differs is how we express it whether it is in a book, letter, different language or hold it inside of us throughout our lives.
I had the great opportunity to visit Belgium last weekend. It is an absolutely beautiful country. I went to Brussels, Brugge and Gent. I absolutely fell in love with the place. I felt very drawn to go there as my first real trip while living in Europe. It was much more than I had ever hoped for. I had the great surprise of meeting a perfect stranger that was not so much a stranger to me. We spent hours over the entire weekend talking and sharing great conversations that I have not had in a very long time, if ever. That was a pivotal experience for me in my life. I had never met someone that I had so much in common with and to feel that comfortable with a "stranger" was a refreshing experience. This experience has changed me forever. It has opened me up to life in a new way that I believe will deepen my experience as a human being trying to find her way in life. We never know who we might meet along the way and how they will impact our lives and path. Just like we never know how much we might impact others either. I think this is so important in today's time to acknowledge and recognize the magic that happens in our lives whenever we can take the moment to do so. There is so much good in our lives that gets overshadowed by media, news, negativity, etc. I feel like I am learning to take a step back from that and get back to listening to my higher self, the one that knows about love and peace and how I can be an instrument of that in the world to always help other people as much as I possibly can and find the joy in that.
That I feel is the difference of the me now rather than the me say a year ago. I was very much in the middle of working on myself and trying to get to know what I was made of over the last few years. I had every opportunity to test the limits and now I am getting the opportunity to actually experience and apply what I have learned and continue growing and learning. I think we are all a work in progress in our lifetime and once you start embracing everyday as an individual gift, the surprises that await for you and the joy that really is in abundance around us is limitless and freeing.
I look forward to sharing more of my experiences while I am on this journey that I call my life now in a foreign land. I would love to hear from those of you that have similar experiences or just experiences that have been transformational.
In gratitude and peace. I thank each and every person I have met along the way and will meet in the future. And most of all I am very grateful for the family that I have. They have been a tremendous support to me during all of these changes. There is alot to be learned and alot to be given. I am ready for my part in the big picture of life and watching one of my dreams come true unfold.
Expressing gratitude and peace
Asha
1 comment:
Yippee Asha-omy-gosha is back! Can't wait to live vicariously through your adventures.
Great first post.
Hugs and Ripples headed your way!
Steve
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