The joy ripple has no boundaries or limitations
While on a two-week trip through Central Asia, I kept up my beloved running as much as possible. There’s something cathartic about starting off your day with a run, especially in a new place. Your senses are heightened as you move through a route unfamiliar, but full of freshness, where your eyes are alert to new sights, and potential hazards.
On this particular crisp morning, I turned to face the sun and felt gratitude. My playlist, the backdrop to a moment we mainly miss. The time of the day where the suns energy explodes across the sky. Enveloping you as it sets the tone for the day. An optimistic glow, a nod that we rise to a brand new day. A day yet defined. An opportunity to splash your own energy onto the blank page, to leave your mark and rise to the challenge!
Not only did I feel alive with the sun beating on my face, but I felt alive in the knowledge the joyful ripple I am passionate about is real. And rippling. Around the world.
The night before, the American girl on my tour shared some very joyful news.
She’d bought my book for her sister back in the states. And due to the wonders of next day delivery, her sis would be opening her own joyful package on the same day I experienced a sunrise run. Whoop.
How wonderful is that?
She never knew Follow Your Joy existed ten days before, and now it's in Illinois, ready for her sister to be taken on an adventure, through my eyes. The effects of the joy ripple right there! Something you can’t put into words, but it fills you with a feeling. The same feeling I feel as the sun rises, a feeling of hope. Hope that by sharing your joy, it will ripple far and wide. And back again!
That trip to Central Asia relit that spark inside me, that makes me feel alive. Your mind, body and soul are open to receiving. You are constantly learning, about yourself and new cultures. It makes you realise we are part of something bigger, and we are more connected than we appreciate. So when you rise, those around you rise too.
I had a 'big' goal to reach 100 countries by the time I was 40. The pandemic put a pause on that, but it's now back in my hands. And the goal is back on the table. It's in sight.
Will I reach my 100th country in 2023? Something makes me think yes.
Why? Because I absolutely adore exploring a new country, and what it brings into my life. It opens me up to plant its wee seeds.
This central Asia trip has reignited a fire that I dimmed a little.
The fire is back.
And my mind is already working through the possibilities of what countries 97, 98, 99, and 100 could be. Because as I know, anything is possible. And this is the result of being optimistic.
Every time I'm inspired, I know something amazing will happen. And when that happens the ripple continues, as that is what a community is about. When one person rises, we all rise.
This doesn't end. I flow into the next experience. Travelling, running, writing, exploring, learning, and sharing back. I am a curious being, who just wants to play in life.
What's the next chapter? Not 100% sure but as long as I tap into what I love, the joy happens and that's when the magical stuff also happens.
The joy ripple I refer to, has no boundaries, or limitations.
On my return to Scotland, I popped into a local café where I will be running an event in their upstairs space. On a previous visit, the owner explained they had a copy of my book in their bookcase upstairs. A customer had taken it with her to Ireland, to get lost in my tales. I loved hearing this.
On this visit, the owner explained the customer was back, and likely to pop into the café. After we chatted for a bit, it happened, I experienced the joy ripple in real time. The customer appeared in view as she walked into the cafe, the owner asked what she thought of my book, Follow Your Joy. Her response lit me up, “ I loved it, it was so interesting. I couldn’t put it down and read it in three days”. What a review!
As he turned to me and smiled, she caught my eye and asked “Are you the author?”. I nodded with a big smile on my face.
Talk about a moment. It was so random, light and refreshing. My book, my words, my tales, had lit her up and in turn, she lit me up. I fully experienced the joy ripple I talk about.
She sat down on the high chair next to me and we chatted, about my book, her life, her desire to visit Rome, her tips to visit Donegal. And we laughed.
I told her how grateful I was she found my book.
I know the ripple will continue as I start to prepare for my first in person speaking event, where I get to spread my joy and how I live my life with intention.
To everyone who is part of this journey with me, 100% leap into your joy and flow with life. You are ready, and it would be a shame to miss out.
Say yes to love, joy and learning. It's some combination.
From a girl who is feeling free and untamed, a little giddy and back in love with travel life. And who, recently, crossed the border into her 95th country, Kazakhstan.
As our playful guide would declare in Tajikistan, as he shared another fact, 'Let's go!'