Out of the blue the invitation came........we would like you to spend Christmas with us in the UK, and we will provide the ticket!
Having lived isolated from the rest of my family for nearly 30 years, in the meantime having contracted Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, a debilitating illness often confused with chronic Fatigue Syndrome, the offer came like a surge of light to my heart, I have been too ill to work for about 5 years now, and just about survive on the meagre disability pension, with few luxuries.
So I'm off to England, country of my birth, to meet up with friends and family, some of whom I havent known how to contact for around 30 years.
Excited? naturally, but to a lesser extent by the location, more so by the opportunity to be with people I love, and miss, and who reflect that love back to me.
The past few days have been ultra busy preparing for the trip, tough on the body, a tad stressful at times, but now I have left my home on the mountain and am staying with friends who live closer to the ocean.
My vessel sets sail tomorrow, I have no idea what to expect apart from plenty of laughter, love and validation, all of which will be most welcome as this year has been one of the toughest I have ever been through in my entire life.
Call it synchronicity, but it feels as though the heavens are rebalancing the scales after such a long unhappy period, and I believe the trip is the vehicle for the eventual healing of all the hurt and pain.
Like the leader of the Argonauts, I need to bring back the golden fleece from my journey in order to move on from who I was a year ago to a new stronger, empowered me, that lurks in the wings, waiting for the right time to embody itself in me and create a new sense of self.
Primarily a self-healing trip, it augers well to allow me to recommence working part-time again, as a psychotherapist - thus sharing some of the golden glow from the "fleece" with others.
So I am intent on travelling the Jason Myth, and it all begins tomorrow...................
Dinner tonight was excellent Chinese, the company good, old friends are the best aren't they?
They have retired to bed and I am left with my Insomnia to begin my journal.
Leaving my montain retreat was more emotional than I had expected, the garden I have created from scratch in the past 6 months is lush and reaching perfection, everything tall, green, and most plants flowering.
The garden is more than a garden to me, it represents months of hard work, creating a dream from the wild grasses and weeds which were there when I moved in to the cabin in June, and responds to the love and nurture that I give to it.
Leaving it for a couple of months, knowing that we are in for a hot summer is disarming as I am forced to rely on the integrity of friends to keep up the love, nurture and of course watering in order that all these little living things can survive without me.
Leaving the car behind too, is like leaving an old friend, although she is going to have a major overhaul whilst I am away on the trip so she will be happy with that.
Meanwhile, tomorrow cannot come fast enough for me, my head filled with worries that I haven't packed more than the luggage allowance, and that I will be allowed to take the paintings I created over the past weeks as gifts onto the plane with me, for safe keeping.
Interestingly the illness has started to respond to new medications over the past week, so my body is responding better than it has in years, and it feels as though everythng is coming together to make this trip more than possible- a concept I couldnt have imagined even a year ago.
The next blog will be written from the other side of the world - so watch this space.......
