Hello there!
How is everyone nowadays? The weather is warming up. The sun is beginning to shine. Life feels to be opening up again. I always feel this way when spring fills the air. The flowers are blooming, the warmth is causing us to shed our thick winter coats, and the brisk mornings wake up our nervous systems. Things begin to feel alive, preparing us for the summer to come.
I’m lucky enough to feel this as I turn another year older. The world is changing and growing and turning green, just as I am growing older. I get to watch the seasons change as I do, and every year it feels almost nostalgic. Longing for warmth–but thankful of the cold that nestled me in warm foods, thick sweaters, and many cups of tea–I can’t help but look forward to the days to come.
This birthday feels different. I’m celebrating thousands of miles from home, from my family and friends, and from the traditions I’ve grown so attached to it’s almost embarrassing (almost, but not). How odd that we can feel so much about something so normal. I mean, I have had many birthdays before this one and they come around the same day every year, but still.
I’m excited for this year. I’m in a new place, making new friends, figuring out who I am as I go. I feel like I’m learning who I am all over again. Am I a yogi? A writer? A nanny? Am I everything everyone expects me to be but not who I want to show up as?
Am I good enough? Kind enough? Silly enough? Have I shared my heart enough with the ones I love? Have I given Buoy enough scritches? Have I told Steve what he means to me enough? I hope so.
It’s weird to feel yourself trying to re-learn who you are. And don’t take this the wrong way, I’m not going through a quarter life crisis or anything like that, I’m just learning how to live in a way that suits me best in a new home, new place, with new friends, and so far away from almost everything I’ve ever known. Steve and Buoy are my constants, and for that I am grateful. Not to mention the wonderful tech that keeps me in touch with my parents, my friends, all of those who I otherwise may not get to see often I can now FaceTime at any point (as long as it’s at a decent hour, of course).
I will say, it’s been beautiful to find what feels important. Making a home out of an otherwise white, blank, and empty apartment. Finding a yoga studio that feels good. Running again, for fun, for myself, for my physical and mental health. These things that I’d fallen out of because of moving often or living on a boat or never making time, I now have a space for. We now have a home, here, in Europe, and we can make plans that are not based on a weather window or how good the winds are. It’s interestingly beautiful, and I am so grateful.
I now look forward to visits from family, friends, and letters in the mail. I find new places that make me think Mom would love this place, or I bet Jordy will want to come here when she visits, or We have to send the kiddos a card from here! My people are always on my mind, and I can’t help but be glad to have people that bring that yellow, golden, lovely glow to a life that I call my own.
Cheers friends, I hope spring finds its way to you soon.
Skye
P.S. Here’s a couple of pictures of tiny Skye to celebrate adult Skye’s birthday this week.
Mentally Sailing 