Vision Quest-Dive deep

This summer my daughter and I went to Finland to visit my home island where my whole family lives, and a lot of childhood friends that we always hang out with. It is always so good to be home.

"So good to be home"...

This sentence etched itself to my whole being and the presence I had when I was at home. It made me wonder about feeling "at home" with myself and my place in the world. I am not going to lie, moving to the US, and the years being here has never felt like home. I had to work really hard to change the concept of HOME from a place to a state of being. Being at home within ourselves, is a great achievement, and one I am realizing that I would like to support others to land in. It is not a static way of being, it takes continuous presence and strength and effort. Coming back from Finland this year, I decided to go on a vision quest up in the mountains by myself. Vision quests are an ancient tradition, that natives of many indigenous cultures have upheld, and they usually involve solitude in nature, fasting, meditation.

"A Vision Quest is an ancient rite of passage for modern times — a guided period of silence, solitude, and nature designed to bring clarity, truth, and direction. It is one of the few remaining ways to step outside the noise of modern life and hear what your deeper self has been trying to say. " - Ret Taylor

I left on a Wednesday afternoon up to a lake past Nederland in CO that I have been camping by many times. The hike in is 3 miles and semi challenging, because of the altitude gain. The altitude where I was going to camp was at 10,600 feet (3230m). As I locked the car and started hiking the trail, I was already deep into my fast. I had deliberately not eaten dinner on Monday or Tuesday to prepare my system for less food. And after Wednesday midday, I was not going to have my next meal until Saturday. Getting up to the lake in the late afternoon, the winds were dying down and I found a gorgeous spot right next to the shore. I set the tent up, hung up my hammock and went to check what trees would be good to hang my scented items from in a bear bag.

And the next few days I just hung out, walking up to the stream to get some water, swam in the lake and lay in the grass and my hammock for hours. The hunger feelings were sometimes so strong that it helped to move. In which case I slowly walked around the lake. Stopping to enjoy the flowers, the butterflies and some wild little squirrels.

At night, my dreams were intense and waking up, I would write everything down. I received messages on the next steps and what services to offer (yes supported Vision Quests for others are part of that!), I got so much validation for how Divine timing played into me being exactly where I am right now. And that PRESENCE is everything.

I walked down on Saturday, it was a shaky hike as I did not have a lot of energy in my system, and what a wonderful feeling to open the car door and leave my backpack in the trunk. With a smile on my face and a new light of inspiration in my heart, I drove home to take a shower and eat. And get serious about my truth, being aligned with my heart and feeling at HOME in my body.