The path

on which we may currently find ourselves on can often be the path you never thought you'd encounter. So many factors of your life seem so simple and often realized as actual decisions you would have made. While others, so strange in their appearance and feeling, are almost alien in your world of recognition.
Until one day your eyes seem to have opened a millimeter as if overnight. You wake up, and suddenly things aren't exactly as you remember them being, something is different, and you can't quite pinpoint if it's good or if it's a terrible thing that you have no idea. So you begin to question the decisions that have lead to this point and you begin to doubt. Simple things like I'll wait to leave for at least a year, and I will follow my passions, become so intertwined and a decision must ultimately be made. But it is not our decision to take. We leave it up to our spirit to feel the right path and know exactly where it has to go. We follow our spirit because we follow our passion and our hearts lead the way into the dreams we always knew we could realize.
The future becomes the present and we feel ourselves literally crossing the bridges onto a life of choice and action. It is almost as if an awakening is happening within ourselves and we are allowing ourselves to see the truth for once. We acknowledge our passion as a reality and no longer some distant dream which we hope to one day be brave enough to pursuit. And Life suddenly becomes that thing we always hoped we would have that actual reality that keeps us grounded into what's important in this life. Family, friends, and loved ones.
I am thrilled each and every day becomes this awakening, as it has finally happened to me. I have accepted the past 4 to 7 yrs of travelling as the beautifully blessing first part of my journey, that was my awakening to our world. To know our world and the many beautiful cultures and places within it is crucial for us to be able to truly know ourselves. To know who we become in the middle of devastating poverty. To look into the faces of forgotten children due to disease and birth defects. To know who I am as I become a mother to a 4 yr old girl with cerebral palsy. To know who I became as I lived among a village of a Ghanaian community, that became my family. To live on top of the mountains amongst the stars and the waterfalls. To take on the responsibility to become a chief of development for this village. To fall in love with 80 different children of all ages but all from poverty stricken families. Children who had to resort to drugs and theft to get by. Children who knew nothing about the release of communication through art and theater. Children who are now married and working and successful in their lives and still send me messages calling me Miss Natalie. Miss do you remember me?? And of course I do, each and ever day I remember these minor details of my path thus far. And I'm now beginning to see the transition of the awakening to myself and my life. It's scary but thrilling to be aware of, as it feels good to hold on to the first part of my journey and be able to look forward to adding the new to taking the next step and turning the page as the next chapter begins.