When systems of work and rest and health and politics are cracking everywhere we look, I’m steering into my belief that there are other ways to be in the world. That I can make ways for meaning and value and inspiration that don’t rely on the same faulty pillars that are crumbling all around us.

I’m choosing freedom. I’m choosing to be a pirate.

I’m That Girl who really loves the multisensory experience of reading physical books when I have the choice. For this year’s reading retreat, I picked up my reserved library haul and toted them up to the cabin where I would proceed to get through 15 of them in my three weeks at the lake.

What is still most deeply here to push me forward is my curiosity and my eclecticism and my talent for connection.

My ‘normal routine’ right now is to work at accepting that I don’t know what’s coming next and to forge ahead as bravely and transparently as I can.

Here’s my surrealist-inspired writing summary of the journey, one sentence for each nomadic day.

I’m quite pleasantly surprised at how it captures the feeling of the trip, and I’d love to hear what you think in the comments.

It was good to feel true to herself, where and how she was meant to be. What a contradictory thing her heart could be.

The next iteration of Interchange (my series of workshops) is happening IN PERSON, and it’s called Adventure | Reflection.

What can we learn about ourselves if we approach an experience as an adventure? In this in-person session, we will explore new and familiar surroundings while we let curiosity and serendipity take the lead.

The epic journey has come to a close. I’m going to offer a few different kinds of reflection and summary posts of this trip.

Here’s one for the statisticians and the summarizers among you.

What I thought was going to be a day of just driving home brought me one last surprise, which was a visit to the Corning Museum of Glass.

I have been through more than half of the states in this very divided country, and I’ve had some deeply wonderful experiences in many of them. I am looking forward to seeing my parents and dog and to sleeping in my own bed. I’m excited to move ahead with some of the professional projects and ideas that have arisen on this trip, and to see what aspects of this adventure will carry on their influence in my next steps.

One thing that’s really refilled my cup on this trip is how many friends I’ve been able to see across the country and back.

I think it was the Nagoski sisters, in their book Burnout, who talked about the surprising realization that what mid-life crises look like for women tends to be very different from the masculine stereotype of sportscar-buying, younger-women-dating, burning-down-the-bridges. Instead, it comes as a questioning of what we’re prioritizing for ourselves and an examination of how we want to feel/how we’re not feeling that we can change.