Have you ever felt that sensation where you're exploring something new and yet it feels like you've been there before? Not Deja vu, but more a deep knowing in your core? Your energy seems to heighten and your senses tune in to the place, as if remembering and reconnecting with something so familiar, yet temporarily forgotten?
That was my experience when visiting Portugal last month for the very first time.
The trees were majestic and mesmerizing, the different shapes and colors of the Cypress and Cork and Bismarck Palms such a contrast to the winter, gray doldrum landscape we'd left behind. But the one that drew me in most was the unique shape of the Norfolk Island Pine, whose branches soared up high in the sky and grew in to star shapes at the very tips. As if someone had carefully sculpted them to look like arms, opening to the sunlight and welcoming us to this beautiful land. They just calmed my soul.
So, after the trees came the sea.
The VAST sea at the edge of the Atlantic, atop the SHEER cliffs.
This edge of the Atlantic so different from my edge of the Atlantic I've grown up around.
Unlike the trees, this sensation was a combination of awe and terror. I have a fear of heights. The kind of fear that makes me actually want to jump. Not sure what that's all about, I try not to put myself in a position to test it out. But this landscape was undeniably beautiful and unavoidable. I couldn't not engage and with repeated "I'm OK, I'm OK"s I managed to face my fear and walk the path that skirted the edge. Over and over again with each dramatic cliff we discovered. This felt like a coming home to the abilities we have within, that get dulled over time and come alive with a smack in the face of nature.
Next up I'll share a chance encounter that reminded me of my purpose...
xoxo