We all have that one friend who is either on a trip, planning a trip, thinking about a trip, or just getting back from a trip. That friend for me is Laurel Geise.

Laurel and I met in the summer of 2005 while checking emails in the business center at an airport hotel in Bangkok. Laurel, a Florida business executive, was the perfect balance of business meets Zen; she looked as if she would be equally comfortable in a boardroom or on a hike in the Himalayas. But it wasn’t until I heard her infectious laugh that I knew we would be lifelong friends. Her laughter starts from within and then travels to her eyes, which are the color of hot cocoa, sprinkled with tiny flecks of gold like mini marshmallows. Just being around her snickers and giggles is enough to transport me far, far away from any worries I might have.

Over the years, we have made an effort to travel to spiritually-based places like Tibet, Peru, Sedona, Kathmandu, and Naples. Every time Laurel calls about our next great adventure, I get that tingly feeling that spreads to my brain right down to my fingers and toes. I need the buzz of the new, the thrill of the unknown, the seeking of new answers that push my limits. Travel is about the gorgeous feeling of teetering in the mysterious.

Every spiritual trip we have taken has become a quest to discover who we truly are, what life is about, and why we are here. But nothing could have prepared me for our recent spiritual quest to Israel. “l’ai pas vu venir” – I didn’t see it coming. I was a religious studies major in college, yet I didn’t expect Israel to affect me so completely. So deeply. Even though so many have walked all the same steps in this Holy Land, we made our own footprints. We entered paths where others have found meaning and even transcended,  but to answer the question of our own lives, we had to show up and take our own steps. The only genuine safety in the world comes from risking oneself completely to become oneself more fully. Laurel and I did this.

I know I won’t ever be the same. This trip has cracked open something in me. I feel the opening up of an entire way of seeing and being present in the world. It’s not every day I get to slip behind temple doors, peek into ancient scenes, and see levels of the world that have timeless meanings and wild intelligence even amidst modern settings.

It’s good to be home, yet there is sadness and a longing I feel, having to wake up from the dream we shared. When I saw my lime green suitcase and Laurel’s black one coming out of the carousel at the end of our trip, I lost it. I sobbed and sobbed. And I cried on and off for days after. I know this was a physical release of a soul-filled experience.

Each journey we have shared has offered me a nugget of truth. In Israel, I discovered that the outward trips we have taken have led me to an inward journey that has shown me how to bring more presence to my daily life, the ability to be more conscious, and permission to become uniquely and bizarrely myself.

I don’t know where our next girls’ trip will take us, but I do know that I will always be ready for the next one with mi amiga del alma, a friend of my soul. Because in the end, life is not about the destination or the journey, as so many have said. It’s about who walks with you and the friends you make along the way.

Are you wearing the best colors for you? Each of us has a power color based on the five elements and the day we were born. Sign up for my email list and provide me with the day, month, and year of your birth, and I will send you your birth element and power color!
Want more tips on creating a meaningful life? Subscribe to my YouTube Channel, Creating a Meaningful Life, and follow for more inspiration!