Season 6.5 Recap
Back to Boston
On the hike’s ascent, every crunch of earth is filled with expectation and purpose. The sky, the wind, the naked air, and the chill of elevation beckons. Every leaf catches the sun and adorns a glowing canopy. Every fern, mushroom, caterpillar, and acorn is its own microcosm of possibility. Distant reaches of granite await.
Every beginning is like this. It’s a clean page with an expectantly blinking cursor. A flurry of words is excitedly hurled upon it as the story begins.
The way down is different.
It’s a fog of tangled legs. Flickers of memory arise — a barren peak, the taste of cool water, a whooshing breath of breeze. But enlightenment feels more like a shower and a hot bowl of soup. Glowing canopies fade away in the blur of human needing. The once magical forest is now a never-ending tunnel that leads to a blessed parking lot.
It’s hard to write on the way down. The cursor slows in confusion. The pages become heavy with questions. What was this hike for? Why did it begin? Did I really reach the peak? Was it truly a successful summit?
I love the way down. Within the weight of the questions, there is hidden treasure — the essence of the climb’s purpose.
The Recap
Writing this in my first hours back home in Boston – after almost 9 months of wandering travel – I feel how life is changing. It’s time to embrace what’s next.
This is a little season of The Spoonful (which I’m calling Season 6.5).
When the pieces below were published, we were spending our last few days in Kuala Lumpur. It was a moment of calm before a flurry of travel that drained my ability to publish.
I had joined the fantastic Write of Passage bootcamp, and while I didn’t dive into the live aspects in the latter half of this cohort as much as I expected, it served as a the container to write these pieces:
Within these discrete chunks of living, imagination and commitment weave together, creating a beautiful patch in the quilt of life.
We allow serious work to find us by tinkering, contributing, and sharing.
The Spoonful Sabbatical Season
There are many half-finished essays lingering in my backlog. I’m resolved to complete them, starting with a season of reflections on travel.
They will be observations and lessons from each of the regions I visited. Titles (and even content) is tentative, but here’s what I’m thinking:
The Romantic Solitude of the East (Taiwan, Japan)
Vibrant Harmony of Southeast Asia (Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore)
Lessons from The Middle World (Qatar, Egypt, Türkiye)
It’ll cap off with a piece (or two) that summarizes learnings of the trip and dives into the tactical things that my wife and I did to make it happen.
As always, thank you for reading. It feels good to be hitting the publish button again. Prayers and love. See you in the next one!
Snap of the Week
Welcome back home Saalik! Looking forward to seeing more of your writing! This was quite poetic. I miss write of passage and having a community of editors and writers but it really was such a transformational experience even a year out, I’m amazed.
cant wait to read more…