I have been back from my trip for 5 weeks now and have reflected on how I have grown since getting on a plane May 19.<\/p>\n
I spent my last day in Paris walking around the city, visiting the Louvre for the final time and packing up my things. I did make it to the Catacombes
\nand it was a unique experience. Apparently there are catacombes like this all over Europe, so it isn’t so unique to Europeans. When I returned to\u00a0London I had the better part of a day to explore as well. I bought souvenirs, walked the city, visited the Tate Modern and had one of the best days\u00a0of the whole trip. Walking around London on my last day I felt connected to the earth, to spirit, to the source of all life.\u00a0I felt strong and powerful. I knew I could do anything I wanted, it was now just a matter of deciding what that is. I was\u00a0tired and missed my family, so I wasn’t sad to come home. What made me sad was not knowing when I would be back.<\/p>\n
After being alone for four weeks, especially the last 11 days as I couldn’t speak French and did not do a lot of talking, I was\u00a0overwhelmed being surround by friends and family. My new-found space and freedom was replaced with things to do. I reverted back into old habits\u00a0like watching television, not meditating and looking at Facebook way too much. I checked out more books than I had time to read from the library. I over\u00a0committed my schedule, leaving no time for rest and relaxation.<\/p>\n
The awareness I gained during my trip made me aware that this hectic pace did not feel good. Now I am more careful with my time.\u00a0This is my time to build my life the way I want it. To incorporate all that I learned during my travels.\u00a0I still get excited at the thought of going somewhere and have become much more clear about the things I want to do and don’t want to do.\u00a0I’m excited to see how my life unfolds in the coming months, and for new travels on the horizon! This weekend I am participating in Give Camp Cleveland (http:\/\/clevelandgivecamp.org<\/a>).\u00a0I have never done anything like this before, as I have always been\u00a0too busy to commit a whole weekend to working for free. I am excited about what I will learn there and who I will meet!<\/p>\n Also, I also put up ALL my pictures on Flickr. They can be accessed from my home page at https:\/\/www.shannonwhalen.com<\/a> by clicking on the Photos link, or directly\u00a0here: https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/7588367@N07\/sets\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I have been back from my trip for 5 weeks now and have reflected on how I have grown since getting on a plane May 19. I spent my last day in Paris walking around the city, visiting the Louvre for the final time and packing up my things. I did make it to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shannonwhalen.com\/musings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shannonwhalen.com\/musings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shannonwhalen.com\/musings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shannonwhalen.com\/musings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shannonwhalen.com\/musings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=127"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.shannonwhalen.com\/musings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":134,"href":"https:\/\/www.shannonwhalen.com\/musings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127\/revisions\/134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shannonwhalen.com\/musings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shannonwhalen.com\/musings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shannonwhalen.com\/musings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}