Wings

Kathy Wright

Description

This is a story of accumulating teachings from traveling the world. Just as in “Eat Pray Love”, travel is both an inner and outer journey of transformation.
In WINGS, Kathy Wright, shares her deeply personal story, from traveling the bubbling brooks, muddy mountains, and masterpieces of the world to her journey through ovarian cancer. She beautifully illustrates that our journey doesn’t end just because we come home. Instead, we can learn how to stand in the uncertainty of each day. It is a book that you can read from beginning to end or one that you can open randomly to a single chapter. This book will inspire readers of all ages to find their joy, seek their truth, and allow their souls to fly.

Sujets

• Personal Memoirs
• Biography
• Autobiography

Informations

• Publié par: Balboa Press
• Date de parution: 18 juin 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9798765239056
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Wings
 
 
How traveling the world freed my soul to fly
 
 
 
 
 
 
Kathy Wright
 
 
 
 
 
 
Copyright © 2023 Kathy Wright.
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
 
This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.
 
 
 
Balboa Press
A Division of Hay House
1663 Liberty Drive
Bloomington, IN 47403
www.balboapress.com
844-682-1282
 
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
 
The author of this book does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical, emotional, or medical problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. The intent of the author is only to offer information of a general nature to help you in your quest for emotional and spiritual well-being. In the event you use any of the information in this book for yourself, which is your constitutional right, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
Interior Graphics/Art Credit: Brooke Powers
 
 
 
ISBN: 979-8-7652-3907-0 (sc)
ISBN: 979-8-7652-3906-3 (hc)
ISBN: 979-8-7652-3905-6 (e)
 
Library of Congress Control Number: 2023910271
 
Balboa Press rev. date: 06/16/2023
CONTENTS
Dedication
Preface
 
Chapter 1 :      Rules for the Journey
Chapter 2 :      Curiosity
Chapter 3 :      Rituals
Chapter 4 :      Faith
Chapter 5 :      Connections
Chapter 6 :      Honoring Those Who Came Before
Chapter 7 :      Giving and Receiving
Chapter 8 :      Magic
Chapter 9 :      Power of Self
Chapter 10 :    Truth Seeker
Chapter 11 :    Resilience
Chapter 12 :    Gratitude
Chapter 13 :    The Power of Nature
Chapter 14 :    Sacred Moments
 
Epilogue
Acknowledgements
DEDICATION
To all you travelers and explorers out there whether you travel by foot, plane, train, car, bus, bike, or chair, you are my people.
Also, to all the people whose simple gestures of kindness were often underestimated, I thank each and everyone of you who has touched my life with love and gentleness. You may not even be aware, but I have expanded because of you. You have been seen and deeply appreciated.
PREFACE
All of the travel stories shared in this book took place before my cancer diagnosis. My diagnosis was made in May of 2020, during the time when the COVID-19 pandemic had shut down the world. My world further shut down as I reckoned with a disease I’d never thought I’d face. As I grappled with my new existence, I collected travel vouchers for all the trips that I had planned but would be unable to take at this time. As I sought a new purpose and a new direction in my life, I recognized the need to share my stories from a new perspective.
I sat in quiet meditation with my diagnosis, just as the whole world sat contemplating the meaning of “living,” of existence. Now three years later, as my book is being published and as I stand vibrant, healthy, and alive, I pull out my travel vouchers once again. I am ready for adventure. I carry a desire to explore more of the world, other cultures, and—always—myself in an even deeper way. I fluff out my wings, ready to soar once more. I step off that cliff of uncertainty into a world of infinite possibilities.
I began to recognize more about myself as I learned more about who I am. I am a traveler, an explorer, a sailor, a hiker, an adventurer, a teacher, a yogi, a midwife, a scientist, a writer, a mother, and the list could go on. Throughout my life, there was always something to experience, not just to see. I realized that I didn’t just want to watch or read about it, I wanted to be in it fully—to Experience it with a capital E . I wanted to hear it, smell it, taste it, touch it, absorb and learn it all. It became obvious to me that these journeys were the foundation of my spiritual awakenings.
This was not something I knew at the beginning. It was a slow dawning of awareness. I thought my only spiritual journeys were those labeled as such, those with Deepak Chopra, Don Miguel Ruiz, Jorge Delgado, Caroline Myss, Joe Dispenza, Tony Robbins, Oprah Winfrey, Jean Houston, and the list could go on. Instead, I came to know many powerful shamans and teachers who were among what we would call everyday people. When I traveled with an open heart and a noticing presence, they appeared everywhere and always at the perfect moment.
The first of such teachers that I finally recognized was a bus mate riding from the JFK Airport to central NY City. I was in NY for my brother-in-law’s fiftieth birthday celebration, a minireunion of my family and his, a joyful event. I had invited a man I’d been dating for a while, but just that morning, I had received a last-minute email saying that the traffic would be too bad and he wasn’t going to come. I was hurt, angry, sad, and totally miserable. That was the energy with which I climbed aboard the bus and sat next to my perfect guru.
Instead of buying into my miserable energy, he stayed in his. He was pure joy. He continued to point out the beauty of the day, how lucky I was to be visiting now, and what I should look for as I walked on to my hotel. He drew me in, and my joy began to grow. I let go of sadness. I literally skipped my way to my hotel, breathing in the incredible magnificence that can only be New York City. I carried my birthday angel wings, ones I had purchased at Disney that I wore to many birthday parties. I planned to wear them to my brother-in-law’s party. Now I felt as if they had been placed upon my back by that man’s powerful energy. That day, it became obvious to me how we could influence people with our actions, yet be completely unaware of that power and influence. Every day, our small words and actions send messages that can change a person forever. We have tremendous power to change ourselves, the world to soar, and to fly.
Learning came once more in the form of another surprising teacher. I sat with my youngest brother on the back of the boat in Saint Croix. We were talking about our mother, with whom both of us had a difficult relationship. We struggled to feel loved by her. We struggled with wondering if we had done and were enough. We each sought answers in our own way. I thought she favored him. After all, he was a male, her son, her favorite. Meanwhile, I was someone she saw as competition, her mirror image but with youth on my side.
“You know,” he said, “she calls you her child with the biggest wings.” I’d thought she didn’t know or understand me at all, and yet she recognized the true essence of me even better than I did. She saw the explorer and adventurer in me. She saw the seeker of Experience. She saw my need to fly.
I’ve come to realize that what I once saw as two paths, one traveling the world, the other seeking my true self, were actually intrinsically bound. Never did that become more blatantly obvious than when I lay in that emergency room bed and received the diagnosis of ovarian cancer. My first questioning thought was, “Am I going to die?” My second was, “I wonder why I picked this journey for myself.”
I began to look back over all the journeys I’d had, both within the world and within myself. I looked at my cancer journey, and I began to see the real journey. I recognized how all these journeys intertwined, folded back on one another, flourished, and enhanced one another. None of them stood alone, and each contributed to the greatest journey I was to have. I was able to discern the qualities that helped me along the way. Within the chapters of this book, I’ll share them with you. I open my hand to offer each to you as the gift it was to me.
 
Chapter 1
RULES FOR THE JOURNEY
 
S INCE I WAS VERY YOUNG, I always knew that I was a born explorer, a journeyer. I was lucky that my early years of growing up took place on eighteen acres of land in northeastern Ohio, a land full of wildflowers and forests, small creeks, and strawberry fields.
In the summer, my parents would rent an RV, an affordable way to travel with their four children at that time. We traveled east to the Atlantic Ocean and west to the Pacific and back. We’d park in campgrounds and mall parking lots. Like a snail, we carried our ready-made home on our backs. As children, it was not just play. Although, for me, it felt like it. Remember, these were the days way before Google Maps and phones with GPS. We were required to read maps, plan the route, decide what to visit, to learn about where we were going. I was given a map and looked for the roads we were on and the ones we could take to our destinations. On the maps were often markings highlighting sights along the way worth visiting. State capitals were marked with a star, and o