Today marks one complete week I have been home from my cruise. I have been enjoying the hustle and bustle of the week with clarity and new found energy. But last week, let me tell you... the lessons I learned were core shaking. LITERALLY.
My husband and I went on a 5 day/4 night cruise. When I tell you I wasn't all that excited... its' the truth. The idea of being locked on a ship with 4500 people was NOT appealing to me. The more I work with energy, the more of a hermit I am becoming. LOL. Big crowds are not as fun as they used to be. And leading up to my vacation, I was burnt out. I felt heavy, tired and disconnected from Spirit. We had just come off Mercury Retrograde and major solar flares.. my energy work was taking a huge hit and I was tired of fighting it all. So bring on the cruise ( and a weekend in Ft. Lauderdale to catch some ice hockey games.. the Bruins were in town playing the Florida Panthers! woohoo! )
Day one was great.. getting to know the ship.. having dinner and drinks, relaxing by the pool All was good. My fear of getting sea sick slowly went away when we pulled away from the dock and it seems just fine. Day two we docked at Royal Carribean's private island - CocoCay. It was beautiful! We had tickets to a private beach club for the day with lunch reservations away from kids, DJs and the hustle and bustle of the main pools and waterpark. Just my kind of day. A heated salt water infinity pool.. couch on the beach.. I mean, shall I go on? Heaven: White sand beaches, turquoise water... looking out over the thatch huts on the pier like something out of a movie. LOVE IT. Lunch was amazing.. I had a few margaritas that day.. lobster and fries for lunch... delicious... ANNNDDDD the appetizers were done Bento box style so everyone got a sample of them ALL. So you didn't even have to choose! Shrimp cocktail, vegetables, hummus, pita and ceviche. yum.... now, my husband looked at the ceviche and was like, " hell no. " but I've had it before and love it so I enjoyed every bite.
Got back on the ship for dinner time, ate at their mexican restaurant Sabor.. so good.. and their dessert plate was much like our lunch appetizers.. sample platter of them ALL. Good lord could this get any better. My brain got to make even less decisions. My kind of vacation. After dinner we went dancing and drinking ( in moderation ) for the rest of the night. Took a shower and crashed into bed. We were heading to see for a day on the water.
But somehow I think the Universe was getting a little frustrated with me. The way I was meant to relax was not eating, drinking and dancing... apparently. The Universe wanted to drop me on my ass, give me stillness for 24 hours and dump everything out of me, physically and energetically and leave it at sea. At this point I am sure you can guess where this is going.
Without the gory details, let's just say my GI system got VERY angry about 4:30am - decided to run north and south for about 2 hours and leave me with such severe stomach cramps I felt like I was dying. My husband decided by 9am that he had had enough watching me suffer with the stomach cramps and called the ship doctor. They had me go down and gave me meds to calm my very angry system and isolated me to my stateroom for the day.
Bummer, to say the least.
I spent a lot of time just resting, sleeping, zoning out, achy, cold, hot, you name it.. dehydrated as all hell... it was like a weird version of food poisoning. My tv wouldn't get a cable signal, my cell phone had no service... I had the view of the ocean out my window and a few games like Candy Crush and 2048 that kept me somewhat busy... and a book I had brought to read. But lots of contemplation, quiet mind time, quite frankly, meditation.
I told my husband to go enjoy the ship, but he never stayed away too long.. stopping back in the room to take a nap with me, bring me toast and ginger ale.. it was nice. He was very caring and the staff on the ship was the same - calling 3x day to see how I was. It was a role I was not used to being in... the patient. I am ALWAYS the healer. And in a way the only way to stay true to that was to let others help and do nothing so I could heal myself.
The rest of the cruise went well.. I was let out of isolation on the next day, we spent it lounging by the pool in the sun when everyone got off the boat in Nassau.. we were supposed to swim with dolphins but got a refund and I decided to honor this push from the Universe to stay quiet a bit longer.
When I tell you the flight home was like a flood gate opened in my brain, it would be an understatement. I have never typed so much in my notes app on my phone as we were at cruising altitude. It was like I was a crystal clear diamond and I could see everything I needed to understand and wondered about before vacation with complete clarity. Work was catching up to me fast before the vacation and I needed a way to channel some of my energy in different ways so I wasn't so drained all the time. Well, the answers came. It was amazing. All the VIP offers and workshops came flooding in.... I loved it!
So when I tell you it was HORRIBLE to go through... it was also necessary and liberating in the end. Bottom line, our toughest challenges become our greatest teachers. The enormous amounts of activity and creation that came out of such stillness and calm was astounding to me. I am someone who meditates daily but never at the same time everyday.. its like I do it in small chunks all day long. I am working to develop a practice to get quiet for a longer session each day... I have done it before and I know what it can deliver. I am so absolutely grateful for all I have in my life as it is, the next level is sure to be nothing short of miraculous.
Find your passion in the peace and quiet of your day.. start with a few minutes.. stretch it to a bit more. You will be AMAZED what happens.
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