Saturday, April 27, 2013

Home Sweet Home

"You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life."
-Albert Camus
Just a little reminder to stay in the present moment and focus on what is happening and who you are with right now.
 
 
It's been a while since I have posted a blog. I have written many about my travels in India, but the broadband here seems to be too slow for me to upload any pictures. I feel the photos really make the stories so I am waiting until I return to Hawaii to post those blogs.
 
Surprisingly, I am returning to Hawaii much sooner than I anticipated. When I left Hawaii last November, I had no idea how long I would be gone. I used my frequent flier miles to get a one way ticket to Bangladesh. I was armed with a one year visa for Bangladesh and a 6 month visa for India. I had visions of moving on to somewhere else in Southeast Asia, teaching English in South Korea perhaps, or teaching yoga in Malaysia. Maybe I would even head to Europe to visit friends and family. My possibilities were endless. I was completely open to whatever the universe threw at me.
 
In my heart I hoped that at some point I would return to Hawaii, yet I had no idea when that would be and I had set myself up so that it wouldn't need to be anytime soon. Yet amazingly, when I opened up to the universe, the universe showed me exactly where it wanted me to be.  Luckily for me,  that place turns out to be Hawaii.
 
I had been dreaming of coming to India for the past 5 years. I wanted to earn my 500 hour yoga certification over here. Somehow I thought it would be more meaningful getting if from the birthplace of yoga.
 
Well, I completed research for my masters thesis in Bangladesh, and I headed to India (stories to come shortly) and earned my 500 hour yoga teacher certification. Along the way I made many new friends, saw some amazing places and just this morning I gave an elephant a bath!
 
But the most amazing thing is that while I was in the Himalayas, immersing myself deeply into yoga and meditation, and not worrying about my future or my past, I received an email. A yogini friend of mine emailed me about an opening at one of the studios where she teaches that needed a 500 hour yoga teacher on staff to assist with a Yoga Teacher Training program coming up in May.  This is exactly the kind of thing I had been hoping to do! I introduced myself to the studio owner and we started chatting over email. Then I began to worry about where I might live. I knew I needed to downsize from where I had been before in Hawaii. My rent would need to be much lower and I would need to get by without a car at least initially. I started to worry about how I would find a place without having a car, and which friends I could bother to let me stay with them until I found a place, maybe a couple days, maybe a couple weeks. The same friend sent me another email a week or two later saying that one of her roommates was being transferred to another island and she had a room available if I wanted it May 1st!  Perfect!  The price was right, the location was good (albeit a different side of the island than I'm used to) and I told her to count me in!
 
I'm still having a hard time believing how everything has "fallen into place" so nicely for me. It seems that when you truly learn to let go and stop trying to make things happen, when you can open up to a higher power (whatever you want to call that power) and follow your heart, things really begin to open up.
 
I have a few days left in India and I plan to enjoy every moment of it. Having said that, I can't wait to get back to Hawaii and start doing what I feel I was meant to do.
 
Follow your heart and make space for the things you are passionate about. If you trust in the Universe and focus on the present, somehow everything seems to work out.
 
Namaste