Tag: travel

  • Three hours until takeoff

    Three hours until takeoff

    Three hours before I was supposed to leave for the airport, I was sitting in an emergency room listening to a doctor explain why I shouldn’t get on the plane. My heart sank as I realized I had to choose between the safest decision and a dream I’d carried for years.

  • The Weight of Wonder

    The Weight of Wonder

    Two nights before leaving for the Pacific Northwest, I find myself surrounded by wrinkled itinerary pages, hiking gear, and a dream I’ve carried for nearly half my life. What begins as a story about planning slowly becomes something much deeper: learning that simply standing in the place you’ve longed for can matter more than finishing…

  • Chapter Seven: Return to Wonder | Perfectly Imperfect Life

    Chapter Seven: Return to Wonder | Perfectly Imperfect Life

    For years, the Pacific Northwest has lived somewhere in my imagination. As July begins, I’m reflecting on why some places stay with us long before we’ve ever arrived and how learning to notice beauty has quietly changed the way I move through the world.

  • 2025: The Year I Learned How to Live Inside Myself

    2025: The Year I Learned How to Live Inside Myself

    In February, my body crossed a line I didn’t know how to prepare for. Surgical menopause didn’t arrive as a single event; it arrived as a reckoning, layered with a complexity no one had fully warned me about. Looking back now, I realize I’d been moving through perimenopause for years, unknowingly carrying its subtle shifts,…

  • “Describe one habit that brings you joy.”

    “Describe one habit that brings you joy.”

    Considering this writing prompt, which surprisingly caught my attention despite my initial hesitation toward these writing exercises, I’m intrigued by how simple questions can unveil the complexities of our thinking. These prompts, though straightforward, reveal holes in my ability to think of the most basic things when I am caught off guard. I decided that…