A countdown to...

... not sure what's coming, let me be completely honest! But the countdown has started: 10 days before I embark on an indefinite journey.

I just hung up the phone with Rebecca, who talked me off the edge of panicky abyss by reminding me that whatever happens "all will be good." So true.  For now, it's time to move on from my current happenings to another sort of projection.

The current iteration of the plan looks something (if I were to consolidate it) like: Connecticut-->Asheville-->Los Angeles-->New Orleans-->Houston-->?   I will be adding some arrows in there along the way, but these are my definite markers.

Leaving Connecticut is bittersweet. I have enjoyed being so close with/to my family, reuniting with old friends and spending time reconnecting to the (sometimes hard-to-find) little treasures that this area has to offer. I am, of course, sad to have to abandon my miniature charges; Gabriel and Ally know just how to make my heart break at the thought of leaving them! But it's time to move on, and that's just what I'm doing.

I suspect each phase of this journey is going to satisfy a different need, and that by the end I will have filled a long-developing series of voids (and prepare myself for what is sure to be a massively important year)...

Asheville is coming at just the right time. Not sure how to write about it with any appropriate degree of subtlety; simultaneously, I can't really be too specific because I am not exactly sure what awaits me there! I plan to be embraced by the Blue Ridge Mountains, by music, by home-cooked food, by human connection...by aged love. Asheville is for illuminating the things I like about myself, reminding me how I'm special and different, and for acceptance. I have a feeling that being swept up in child-like love and consciousness is the best possible way to set myself up for what will follow.

Los Angeles is Rebecca, as well as a dozen things that I've been waiting for,  hoping for, dreaming of, putting off, shying away from. It's confronting a whole host of possibilities and projects that I've been keeping compartmentalized for the past year. Time to untie those ribbons, open those flaps and unpack those boxes. Los Angeles is breaking into new life.

New Orleans is the space to honor that new life.  A place for creativity to flourish. Writing, writing, writing, reading, reading, writing more. Jazz fest, music all around us... Walking the streets, taking it in... Can't say much more about it than that! That's what it's all for. We shall see what comes!

Houston. Time to be, breathe and blossom... A weekend with Sadhguru to cement the things that need securing and to let go of the things that need release.  By then, everything might be different... There's no way of knowing. Life has a way of surprising us, now doesn't it?

And so, here's The Head and The Heart to play us out...

I wish I was a slave to an age-old trade
Like ridin' around on railcars and workin' long days

Lord have mercy on my rough and rowdy ways
Lord have mercy on my rough and rowdy ways

Call it one drink too many
Call it pride of a man
But it don't make no difference if you sit or you stand

'Cause they both end in trouble and start with a grin
Yeah they both end in trouble and start with a grin

We do it over and over and over again
We do it over and over and over again

I know there's California, Oklahoma
And all of the places I ain't ever been to but
Down in the valley with
Whiskey rivers
These are the places you will find me hidin'
These are the places I will always go
These are the places I will always go

I am on my way
I am on my way
I am on my way back to where I started

One more for the stars and the eyes of the walls
I hear your name...

I saw your face in the crowd and you came out
You saw me walkin'...

You got a sign on the door and it reads to me
Just like the grass and the sun and the...