“The trip is canceled,” she told me over the phone.

I looked around my apartment already prepared for my summer subletter, my luggage already packed for the adventures to come.

“But,” she continued, “you already have a plane ticket, so if you want to travel to Turkey, go for it.”

It was July of 2013, one week before I was to guide educational programs in Turkey and Tanzania and one month after the deadly protests in Taksim Square in Istanbul. The trip to Turkey was canceled due to the inherent risk of being in a country amidst political unrest.

Of course, I chose to go…

I was catching my three-year-old niece last weekend as she ran off of the floating, foam “lily pad” and into the water. We devised a call and response so I was ready for her. “Auuuunnnnttt Suuuusaaan, are you ready?” she called. “LAUNCH!” I responded. We did this for hours. It was perfect summertime fun.

When we were looking to buy a house, Adam would lovingly ask me, “So...when do you think you’re going to have the feeling that it’s the right one?” To which I would lovingly reply, “I’ll know it when it happens.”

I can’t imagine how different life would have been without years of learning meditation and mindfulness practices. What would I have turned to if I didn’t have yoga and breath? Where would I have gone if I couldn’t roam through the forest of my mind?

Amidst the tumult of the world, I hope you have found your feet on the ground, your heart full and your eyes looking forward as we discover opportunity in these moments of in-between.

It went something like this:

Husband: ‘Will you go on a date with me?’

Me: ‘Of course!’

‘Be ready at 2:30 on Sunday.’ (It was Wednesday).

I have this theory that most events, including the global pandemic we are in, follow the stages of group development. First defined in 1965 by Bruce Tuckman, the stages bring language to experience.

I wrote this a couple of years ago while visiting Cuba. Each day was another opportunity to disprove common misconceptions about the island and its people and invite a new perspective into my own life.