Images ©AngelaHowell.com All rights reserved.
The True mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible. ~Oscar Wilde as quoted in Finding the Gift, May 19th, "Appreciating Mystery and Uncertainty" Happy Tuesday! Last week, I promised to share more about the off-beaten-path adventure hike my son and I took in Norway. If you missed my email, "The Domino Effect of Saying Yes," which included a fun, fifteen-second highlight video of our
spontaneous backpack trip, click here. Without much time for planning, my son created our Norway itinerary in just a few hours on the day before we left. I’m not sure he could have planned it any better, even if he had months to research the best train stops. The scenery as we traveled through the mountains cross-country from Oslo to Bergen was incredible. A few hours after leaving a ski town named Geilo, we started seeing the most spectacular scenery yet. As the train slowed, what a treat for us to realize we had arrived in Finse, our next planned stop, the one where we were actually going to spend a whole day hiking and enjoying this picturesque mountain town. I could barely
contain my excitement. We sought guidance at the town lodge, and then took off on what was to be an hour and 45 minute hike. We passed some residents on the way up and they said to keep an eye out for the wild reindeer in
the snow gaps between the mountains, where they like to go and cool off. Wild reindeer?! Our anticipation climbed even higher. We hiked up the hilly mountainside for about twenty minutes, stopping constantly for photo ops
that we just couldn’t pass up. Soon we came to a small water house with rushing waterfalls landing in a sparkling clear pool with a rock bottom. A sign noted that it was the water source for the area, so I climbed down to the water’s edge and scooped up a handful to drink. Delicious! So pure and cold. We looked around for where to continue our hike and realized the path seemed to have ended there. We were pretty sure we hadn’t missed a fork and were puzzled. I thought perhaps we misunderstood the directions and needed to go back for clarification. Directly in front of us was a short, but steep, grassy hill, which blocked our sight to whatever lay beyond that. My son said if he were by himself, he would take that
hill and keep going. So we did! In a couple minutes’ climb, we reached a vast open area introducing us to more snow-capped mountains in the distance, vivid, kelly-green meadows, and water running throughout that was
outlined with vibrant, lime green moss. Sometimes I just shook my head in awe because the beauty was surreal and almost too good to take in. My son exclaimed that our pictures looked photoshopped. For over two hours, we
frolicked our way around the hilly mountain side, climbing rocks, racing breathlessly to the next overlook, crossing narrowing places in the water on stepping stones, and resting occasionally to take it all in. Our intuition made for a great tour guide and we came back down the hill to the charming town of Finse, slightly different than how we had climbed up. When I recall that I contemplated returning back to the lodge to ask for clearer directions, or to start a different hike, I shudder to think we would have missed the undisputable highlight of our trip. Instead, we roamed unchartered wild land and forged our own path. Perhaps that was a big reason this hike was so exhilarating? We were exploring in the true sense of the word, without a clear path or destination, just chasing the joy. We had no idea what we would find, but we knew the journey itself would be worth it. Turns out, it was more beautiful and
beyond anything either of us could have imagined. Hiking wild land without a proven plan runs totally against my usual need to know everything in advance. I try to keep my life mapped out, with my “figure it out” software
always on, always calculating my next move. Yet the decision to go off-course rewarded us many times over. We never did see any wild reindeer, although looking for them added to the adventure. We dodged reindeer poop in numerous places so we knew they couldn’t be too far off. Here are a few of the many moments and breathtaking vistas we were blessed to witness. Just know that pictures cannot do it justice. It's one thing to see a photo of a beautiful nature scene. It's quite another to stand in
the picture.
Images ©AngelaHowell.com All rights reserved.
Images ©AngelaHowell.com All rights reserved.
Images ©AngelaHowell.com All rights reserved. |
Sometimes, there just isn’t a clear plan or a visible
path to take us to our next destination. Despite our best attempts to figure out the way, we are brought to an unexpected stopping point. In those times, we have come to the end of ourselves, but often that is the starting point of an even grander adventure. It is then we must follow our intuition, be daring and bold, take a risk (or two or three) and trust. We have to become explorers of our own lives and chart new territory by tuning into our inner knowing, which for me is piloted by
God. On May 19, in my book Finding the Gift: Daily Meditations for Mindfulness, I wrote about our inherent need for adventure, including the need for a fair amount of uncertainty. Always playing it safe and
predictable is on one end of the spectrum of life, and being dangerously impulsive and reckless is at the other end. But somewhere in between, there’s a happy medium just outside our comfort zones, where new horizons await to be explored. Along these same lines, check out “Find Your Pulse” on October 18 in FTG, which begins with another quote by Oscar Wilde, To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all. Right this moment, please resolve to not be "most people." Lastly, one of my favorite paragraphs in my book is from October 5, “Fog Part Two: Stop Being So Civilized" that reads: Why do we let this innate
adventurous spirit become silenced so often by the “grownups” who emerge within us? We civilize our spirits and sequester our passions. We choose safety and security because someone said that makes more sense. Who are the real “crazy ones? Are you feeling inspired to keep blazing your own trail? What new path have you been considering that would be a stretch out of your comfort zone into wild new frontier? It doesn’t have to be a spontaneous backpack trip to Norway. Trips of a lifetime are fantastic, but we need to incorporate adventure and the ability to embrace the unknown as a regular part of our daily lives. Some of the ways we can do this without boarding a plane include simple things like going on a
walk somewhere new, trying a new recipe or a new restaurant, and choosing the more scenic path on GPS, instead of the quickest and most predictable way to our destinations. Perhaps you are contemplating bigger adventures
like a move, a bucket-list vacation, or a career change? A bold step today might be to do some additional research and share your dreams with someone who can hold them sacredly, supporting you and cheering you on. Our bodies tend to follow our thoughts, so we need to frequently lead our thoughts into open expectation. Possible mantras to write down and read/recite often might include: I am willing to
receive everything I came here for. I have the courage to be all of me. I welcome new experiences to delight my spirit and satiate my need
for adventure. It’s okay to have it all. Life is plentiful. I deserve to claim my seat in the adventure of life.
And in the same way I ended the daily meditation in my book on November 21, “New Horizons Just Inches Away,” remember, you may be closer than you think to life-changing expansion and enrichment. Take a step. Stretch. Watch your world grow. Embrace trust
and the unknown. You will discover (remember) that you already have all you need to keep blazing your own trail.
Does today's meditation resonate with you? Please share your voice in our FTG Readers Group on Facebook. Your hopes, thoughts and dreams matter to me. -—————————————— Cheers to a great week, noticing the gifts that matter most. Feel free to share with a friend. My painting of the week is below, with a story of
"coincidentally" painting a snow-capped mountain scene just a few months ago, wondering where that came from. Until next time... To your gifts! Angela
Invite a Friend to Join Us? Do you enjoy my Tuesday emails and know someone else who would appreciate a weekly dose of spiritual food—hope, encouragement and a fresh perspective? Please send them to angelahowell.com/links, where they can click the button to sign up for Tuesday's gifts and updates. They will also receive my free eBook, 10 Secrets to Finding the Gift. Thank you in advance for helping me reach more people. Book Reviews So Appreciated! If you haven't
already, would you please leave a short comment on Amazon and/or Goodreads? That's one of the easiest things you can do to help an author you love keep writing books. Many thanks in advance!
Abstract Painting(s) of the Week
If you'd
like to see more of my art, please visit my website. Reply to this email if there is something you're interested in. I also offer commissions and shipping is available. Peak Moments 24x30 acrylic on gallery wrapped canvas.
I actually have three paintings to share this week with a story. I created the first painting in April, "Peak Moments" with no intentions of painting a snow-capped mountain scene. Yet these
mountains showed up on my canvas, so I embraced them and let the painting live, instead of covering it up and converting it into an abstract. Four months later, I'm hiking Norway, surrounded by snow-capped mountains. Coincidence? Another painting that happened in April is called "Dancing in the Moonlight." My husband and I are such home bodies that I'm rarely even out after dark to see the moon, so I didn't know what inspired that onto the canvas. And yet, last Thursday night, I went out on a full moon paddle with a group of eight for meditation and gentle yoga stretching. Being on the water at night with the Harvest Moon's full glow dancing on the water as fish were
jumping beside our boards was magical! In October, 2021, I painted an abstract that felt like a Manhattan skyline in October (though I've never been to NYC to know that.) I
found myself in Manhattan for the first time ever, on a bucket list trip in May, seven months later. We cannot deny the power of our thoughts and visions on our realities. Paint
it, write it, play it, recite it, look up photos or articles online, tear out images from a magazine and make a vision board. What you focus on doesn't even have to make sense or seem feasible. Simply pay attention to whatever sparks life in you and be open to surprises. Indulging our imaginations without limits is a critical step in blazing our own trails.
Dancing in the Moonlight 24x30 |
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