TAKE THE LEAP

I began imagining Words and Journeys in 2014, when I was living in Toronto (Canada). As countless others have done for me, helping people take their own journeys, makes me happy. I saw how Words and Journeys could help facilitate that, without interfering with my dream Lonely Planet career, allowing me to continue to feed my wanderlust and expanding my reach, creatively.

I’ve been chipping away at the myriad bits and pieces required to launch the site, since 2014, but it’s really only been since December 2019 that I found my momentum. By March, I was preparing to set off on another life-changing research trip for Lonely Planet, and after a busy month of negotiations and refresher training, was on the verge of launching Words and Journeys as a travel agency, when the unthinkable unknowable thing that such a pandemic is, happened, overthrowing the best laid plans of entire populations. Like millions of others, my livelihood and the path to prosperity I’d been paving for so long, suddenly evaporated. You can’t write good guidebooks if you can’t hit the road, and you can’t sell travel when there’s no travel to sell.

Travel hones our instincts and opens our hearts. It requires a leap into the unknown to first venture beyond the safe haven of “home”. Taking that leap, in itself, I believe, is integral to the expansion of human consciousness— collectively and as individuals. Such big leaps (trusting, really…) help deepen our awareness of each other and urge us to explore and experience our world more deeply. Everyone we encounter after we leave the nest of home and begin to explore our world, if we’re open to a little honest self examination, reflects valuable insights into who we are and what we are part of, and Mother Nature (or Gaia - I say sometimes), through the magnificence, diversity and abundance of her Natural World, gives us glimpse upon glimpse of something greater, of “life beyond”… each glimpse never more revelatory than we have the character to handle, at any given time.

頑張って、皆！

COVID-19 is a call to action. Life as we knew it, has been forever changed by this experience. Health impacts aside, many of us have been forced to re-invent ourselves and find new ways to earn, in order to survive—a terrifying concept, especially if you haven’t yet had your adaptability honed and your bravery bolstered by taking that leap I mentioned before.

When we find ourselves in a climate of heavy handedness and confusion, to not succumb to fear, requires a conscious commitment to focus our attentions on anything but fear. To simply, choose love…

For me, when I hear fear’s chatter in my head, or being spruiked on the TV, or in the queue at the supermarket; I make the choice to tune in to a voice of love; my inner-voice, that sense of instinct which had guided me without fault, when I was far from home, without family or friends to fall back on, for so many years; almost always landing me in the right place, at the right time. By doing this, I’ve been able to find again, the beauty that was simply obscured by, but not lost to, the gradual infection of my status quo, with a virus strong enough to bring a planet to its knees. I remember my friends in Otsuchi, who lost everything in the tsunami, and 頑張って (ganbatte); the determination of the Japanese people, when faced with any kind of challenge, to “never give up”.

“Ganbatte, Ben-kun! Ganbatte!!”

I hear their voices in head. In my mind’s eye, I see countless kind faces from past journeys in Japan, cheering me on, smiling. “Ganbatte—!!”

To survive or thrive in this age of coronavirus, it is essential that we reconnect with our imaginations, get intimate with our inner voices, and through their good counsel and guidance (our own) find the source of love that is greater than us all.

SERVICE AND SILVER LININGS

And so, wordsandjourneys.com is here! It remains a place to share my writing (a taste of which you’ve now just had) and photography (stay tuned…) and in coming months, might even facilitate your next journey. Meantime, in response to the world around me, its focus is shifting from global roaming towards the kinds of journeys you can take at home. In the end, both are journeys within.

I’ll share some of my own story; of how at 16, just weeks before losing my Dad to lung cancer, I discovered the magic that is Reiki and began a journey which led me around the world several times, and has continued to this day. Embedded in this tale, I’ll share the story of my teachers and the lineage of Reiki and my understanding of some of Denise’s teachings, relevant to this time. Since her death in 2002, her wisdom echoes in my head, constantly. She was someone who truly lived in service of the many and I still consider myself one of a fortunate few, blessed to have known her.

ONLY WE CAN…

Whenever we share an act of service, even a simple one, being kind to someone; that action always benefits everyone at some level. Even if that benefit is so subtle that we can’t directly see an outcome, the resonance of its positivity is exponential, just like that damn curve we now see everyday, only cloaked in the darkness of its negative aspect, as the measure of daily viral infection rates and death tolls.

It is through the exponential effects of world service; kindness, compassion and simple acts of healing, that a new world will emerge from the chaos we’re now aware is but an arm and a half’s length away.

Whilst “social distancing”, isolation, lockdown, the loss of our civil liberties and the tragedy of an escalating human toll, all seem unfair and hard to bare, the manifestation of this epidemic equally presents us with a tremendous opportunity for healing. Many hold the opinion that it heralds the dawning of an age spoken of in many spiritual traditions; an era unlike any before.

All things told, it’s a generous opportunity; a chance to re-focus our energies, re-think our plans for the future, and to re-evaluate and re-cast our beliefs and our priorities. It’s a chance to re-discover community, to re-connect with and strengthen ties with our mob—our family and friends, near and far—made possible by the silver lining of our obsession with technology and the unexpected discovery of “so much time on our hands”… precious time… that many of us forgot we had.

More than ever in our lifetimes, we have the chance to change the trajectory of the future—to heal the world and save the planet. Words and Journeys is up for the challenge.

The time is now…