The leap 🍂
The leap 🍂
Dear friends,
When I get to witness someone’s growth, whether that’s the tiniest of unfurlings or a glorious blossoming, I cannot help but be inspired. 🌱 Last year, a friend made a dream move from NYC to Berlin. A few months ago, another friend left his decades-long teaching job to work at a farm. My creative coach also recently left her full-time job as a design leader to launch her coaching business. I am drawn to these risk takers not only because I know I too will take the leap to build my eco retreat, but also because they are people who trust themselves.
Since I was young, I felt the lukewarm comforts of stability and was often guided and encouraged to seek out the safe spaces inside the world by my parents. They had suffered from poverty as kids and did not want me to experience the raw desperation they had gone through. It seems like my independent soul sliced through almost every safety net they set up for me. At age 19, I worked at clubs and puffed on cigarettes, head still numb from techno, as I passed morning commuters headed to the office. At age 23, I chose to work at a non-profit instead of a bank, receiving half the salary I could’ve gotten, making my father grumpy for a few months. But the choices I made, looking back, make me proud of my self-awareness and confidence in myself (maybe except for the smoking cigarettes part). I knew what I wanted and I went for it.
Reflecting back to earlier this year, I spoke to two “young-at-heart” dreamers over the phone: Aasta and James. They are the founders of Quinta Colina Flora, an eco bed and breakfast in Sintra, Portugal. Oddly enough, what led me to them was a leap I had made almost two decades ago: applying at age 12 to a boarding school in New England while my parents returned to Japan. On a quiet Sunday this spring, I flipped through my Alma mater’s quarterly magazine and in the alumni notes section, read about James and Aasta’s eco retreat. The universe was tapping my shoulder, and I knew I had to contact them.
When we got on the phone, I felt a comforting warmth, like a cat stretched out in a sunny spot of the garden. I could tell how happy James and Aasta were. They had found and created a true home in Portugal. Like me, they also used to live in the United States. Back then, James was working a serious full-time job, and over a Christmas holiday spent in Portugal they fell in love with the country. He eventually saved up enough vacation days to spend almost a month in Portugal to look for properties. Once procured, they sold their house and timed their move with his retirement at age sixty. Aasta’s story and her research were no less inspiring: from reading tons of books on owning a bed and breakfast to connecting with expats in Portugal via online forums and building a new community later in life. What stuck with me most from our conversation? They said their only regret is that they didn’t move earlier. I saw that as another message: I know in my heart that I will move to Portugal, even if part-time, in the next couple of years. Like many of the dreamers and dream makers I’ve talked to as part of this project, they sent me off with the following words: “Follow your dreams, trust your intuition, go for it!”
I can feel the time is coming soon for a change, not just in the flailing capitalist system I currently participate in, but also in my world of creativity. I have been spending more time painting, and thanks to friends who have encouraged my art and intuition, I will be taking another mini leap and launching a project called the Snoring Snail. It is a small stationery business that celebrates my love of snail mail, slowness in general, and aims to connect with others. I can’t wait to share the details with you in the coming months, and yes, in case you are curious, snails do snore, according to a 1906 clipping from the Los Angeles Herald.
Happy full moon. 🌕 Wishing you courage and self-love in your leaps, big and small.