I intended to take a few weeks off from my demanding corporate job, to recharge and subsequently return to the world of investment banking. I longed to travel to Peru and I found myself in a predicament for I did not have someone with whom to travel. I am someone who has spent a lot of time alone, and yet I lived under the illusionary fear of loneliness. I had struggled with this fear most of my life and had allowed it to keep me stagnant in what felt like mud and I failed to realize that this murky water was only ankle deep. All I needed to do was to lift one leg, follow through with the other leg, take baby steps and plant my feet on solid ground.
Thankfully, there are impulses that sometimes move me into unforeseen and unexpected circumstances and since enough pressure had built up from inside of me, I found myself on a South America bound plane in less than one week and I was traveling solo. I was on an adventurous path.
I ventured into the unknown, soared above some of my fears and traveled to unmapped corners within myself. I came to know this as the universe that exists inside of me, the vastness that I have been carrying around and ignoring for most of life. This is when journeying into myself began. It felt like I was meeting with myself for the first time, I was beginning to know who else I am. The more I uncovered, the more I realized that I am an infinite exploration of self.
I did not know when I took a six-week vacation from my job that I would be reacquainted with myself or that I would subsequently land on a path that would allow me to uncover what was on the other side of my fear of traveling alone. My fear was buried deep and my distractions kept me from engaging with it for I dedicated a lot if my time to my corporate job, where I toiled tirelessly for recognition and prestige.
My leave of absence endowed me with a different perspective. I met my Swiss friend, Nadia in Cuzco and I learnt that she was using most of her savings to travel around the world. I did not realize that such options were available to me. Thank goodness for the connections that are made possible by being in alignment with our inner voice and the synchronicity that is always at work. Our paths crossed in this magical land that was called the navel of the world by the Incas and the course of my life was diverted.
I woke up in the Andes Mountains, in Cuzco, in July 2014 and have not seen the inside of a corporate office as of this writing.
“We are all visitors to this time, this place. We are passing through. Our purpose is to observe, to learn, to grow… and then we return home.” |Australian Aboriginal Proverb