Special Day

This is a special day, though nothing much has changed since yesterday - except my perception.

Two days ago I was I was wrestling with a whole barrage of emotions, desires, plans, dreams, hopes, conflicts, priorities, choices, concerns and the commitments and practicalities of conventional life... the daily stuff.

My feet have been itchy for a long time - years - such a desire to travel and leave all this behind. And lately a dream has been brewing in my heart - my head has been working overtime trying to bring some order and reality to it. Two days ago I had work piling up I didn't know if I wanted to do or not. Finances were causing me concern and there were so many things I'd rather be doing that I didn't get round to doing those either... overwhelmed by the possibilities.

Yesterday I had a talk with someone regarding my business... my "official" business. My picture-book business. This person is my assigned management-consultant, and she's there to advise and evaluate my progress to see if I'm fulfilling the criteria for the business funding I'm getting in the form of "social benefit". She assured me that I should stop worrying, I'm pretty much guaranteed an extension on my benefit, and she advised me to cut out all the things that are causing me stress, which are the deadlines and commitments I've set for myself, and promised on my website.

This authoritative advice is what I needed. Now I can continue doing what I've been doing, but without the stress. But this is only part of what makes this day special.

You see, with the stress gone, I can see what I need to do - and why I need to do it. I've already made a decision that I'll embark on an adventure next year - travelling Europe as a minstrel, singing songs, writing new songs and promoting the album I'm going to make before the end of this year.

What makes this day special is the clarity I now have - that this is all going to happen - and with that clarity, I realized this morning that my adventure really begins right here, right now.

Over the next four months, along with my "business" activities, I'll be making all the preparations for my Europe adventure. And this means it's not just a dream anymore. It also means that the plans I have to blog about the journey can also begin now.

I started this blog on a whim the moment I discovered the Mezrab storytelling events. I wasn't quite sure of the form it should have, but now that's clear too. It's a Minstrel's journal... simple! I am the minstrel, and on this blog I share my journal, my daily experiences, my adventure - including the adventure I'm having right here right now.

It's 8am Thursday morning in Amsterdam (as I write this). The sun is up, blue sky promises a very warm day. A perfect morning for coffee on a cafe terrace to watch the city awaken, and to write in my notebook. Next year I'll be doing this often, on new terraces and cafes, in new places. But it's on days like this that Amsterdam also feels like a travel location for me - I see it through a traveler's eyes, experience it with a traveler's heart. I live just around the corner, but here, on this terrace is where I can watch life cycle by, and I feel all my concerns dissolving away into the sunlight - like the disappearing froth on my cappuccino.