Be careful what you wish for?

Here I am sitting at my room at the ashram in Rishikesh (Parmarth Niketan) and I figure it's about time start this here blog of mine and bring y'all up to speed. Where do I start? Did I mention that I'm listening to some chanting in what I am guessing is either Hindi or Sanskrit?

This particular adventure (i.e. India) started I suppose about a little less than a year ago when I discovered yoga. I'm not exactly sure why I started yoga... (although I think it had to do with something about trying to find peace in my life)... but I guess I sorta just jumped right into it. There was a Bikram yoga studio in my hood and one day I decided to give it a go. And then I gave it one more try and I was done. (For those of you unfamiliar with Bikram... it's 90 minutes in a room heated to 105-110... need I say more?) But, I was intrigued by this yoga thing so I decided to do that rational thing and try every yoga studio nearby. In August 2010, I discovered Soni Yoga through groupon and as I was browsing through their website I discovered they (yoga studio owners and fellow yogis) were on a iyuvedic/yoga retreat in India. The pictures looked amazing, they were booking for the March 2011 trip, so I emailed David immediately and now I find myself in India.

I'm just getting y'all warmed up here...

Around the same time I was growing increasingly frustrated with life and my career path. I was trying to make the transition from Human Resources to Operations within my company, and I thought I had great experience and credentials to make this step. Unfortunately, the hiring managers did not agree. After applying to the Operations Manager position five times (yes, five times) I decided it was time to start listening to the universe. Looking back at the past few years, it was quite clear the universe did not want me to be married... it did not want me to continue with my current company... and apparently it wanted me to leave the United States indefinitely. Uh huh...

Now that I was all yoga-fied, I started doing some soul seeking. When I studied abroad in Sydney I fell in love with the whole experience and made a pact to myself that one day I would work abroad. I decided to dabble a little bit and signed up to take the foreign service exam, checked out various websites, and started searching for jobs on idealist.org in countries that seemed at least somewhat appealing. Soon after, early December, I found a positing on idealist for a business manager position for the volunteer segment of a small tourism company located in Swaziland. The position would handle the daily operations of the program with some travel to the volunteer sites in Cape Town, Botswana and Mozambique. The next day I walked into work and told my friend Sharon that I had just applied to my dream job. What the hell, right? Besides... I would never hear from them.

I was wrong.

On January 26th I was offered the position and what was once my dream job was, quite frankly, freaking me out. I'm pretty sure I didn't sleep for the next several nights and was pretty mad at getting myself into this situation. Working abroad sounded fabulous in theory... but this was all happening way too fast. Still not sure what to do, that week I had an appointment at the Lahey Travel Clinic for my India vaccines, so I decided to throw in some African ones as well (just in case). By the end of the week, I was protected against Hepatitis A & B, Measles, Mumps, Rubella, Polio, Meningitis, Typhoid and Yellow Fever with prescriptions for malaria and diarrhea medication and a weeks worth of the HIV cocktail... (with a chance of soreness, headache, fever, rash, redness, upset stomach nausea, and vomiting)... with strict instructions to not eat any fruit that I cannot peel and to not go swimming in fresh whatever because of the brain-sucking parasite infestation in sub-saharan Africa.

Ok... now I get the whole comfort zone thing.

I was freaking out and had changed my mind about this whole universe/bucket list thing... so I did what I normally do... I stopped thinking about it, pretended it wasn't really gonna happen, and started preparing for the transition. Around the same time I was driving to work, cursing myself again, when good ol' Sarah McLachlan came on the radio to tell me "... Don't let your life pass you by" I gave a little chuckle, and the Universe mocked me by playing "Southern Cross" next (just in case I wasn't listening). I'm going to sound kind of lame... but it was this moment that I really felt I had made the right choice and this is where I was supposed to be in my life at this particular time. After that everything really fell right into place.

When I say things fell into place... they fell into place. The morning I had my final Skype interview with Kim, I decided to go to National Tire & Battery before work to replace my front tires. The guy working the counter noticed my car and told me his girlfriend was just in a car accident and was looking for one just like it. We chatted for the next 45 minutes and agreed I would contact him when I found out about the job. How many people randomly offer to buy your car? How many people randomly offer to buy your car an hour after your job interview for a company located in Swaziland? About a month later, I watched Jess & Alex drive out of the driveway of my Belmont apartment with my little bundle of steel that I had grown close with over the last 6-7 years.

I decided it made the most sense to travel straight from India to Johannesburg, which meant I had to wrap everything up in the States by Saturday, March 5th. And once the wheels started turning they did not stop. It was easily the busiest month of my life and I barely had a moment to catch my breath. There were major details to finalize, such as moving out of my apartment, selling my car, finalizing my work projects, finding a good home for Izzy, and packing for two years... to the bazillion minor details such as canceling my Fast Lane account, fingerprints for the FBI criminal check for my work visa, getting all my vaccines, medical records, etc ... to a very busy three weeks of social engagements as I prepared to say goodbye to all my family and friends. I moved in with my parents on February 28th and my mom and I were still packing my stuff up three hours before I was to depart.

As I sit here at 11 pm at my room at the ashram, I really can't believe how quickly my life has changed. I look over the past few years and think about how I tried so hard to make certain things in my life happen. When I final listened to what I really wanted it's really quite remarkable how easily things fell into place. It reminds me of a story Theresa told me about a person walking down the street...

Autobiography In Five Short Chapters

Chapter I
I walk down the street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I fall in.
I am lost... I am hopeless.
It isn't my fault.
It takes forever to find a way out.

Chapter II
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I pretend I don't see it.
I fall in again.
I can't believe I am in this same place.
But it isn't my fault.
It still takes a long time to get out.

Chapter III
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I see it there.
I still fall in... it's a habit... but,
my eyes are open.
I know where I am.
It is my fault.
I get out immediately.

Chapter IV
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I walk around it.

Chapter V
I walk down another street.

- Portia Nelson

Hope you enjoy my blog, cross your fingers that I don't get malaria, and COME VISIT ME!! :)

Miss you xoxox