Gratitude and Growth
As my first full year living in Sweden comes full circle, it has become a time of reflection and appreciation. The privileges of meeting such amazing people and participating in one of a kind opportunities! After working at the school teaching sewing/textile art, I worked with a group of medieval equestrians, traveling to the castles and medieval towns in Sweden and Denmark demonstrating The Art of the Joust. I was able to get back in to making ceramics and find my inspiration again. I have begun working on not just 1 but 3 illustrated books, some of which have been on the back burner. My friends made room for me in their camp at Medieval Week, on Gotland in Visby. There I spent the week immersed in the magic of history and fantasy of the festival. I was reminded of how much love and kindness can affect you and why we do the hobbies we do and our family of all kinds is so important. Working hard with friends to accomplish great deeds reawakened in me what it is that I find important.
Gratitude. Genuine gratitude. Not just saying thank you for kindness, but being thankful on a level that I am finding difficult to express. I have met so many amazing people from all walks of life. I am reminded to cherish the moments and seek out that which brings fulfillment. I am reminded of those from my past as well. Those who I am grateful to have known whether for an instant or a life time. Those who inspire to this day just by being themselves.
Summers song is ending and then will come the fall. Here I stand now looking back to see how far I have come. With out regret I turn to see where my choices they have lead. Before me now is so much more than just the road ahead. More like where the river meets the delta, before flowing out to sea. The intertwining paths of life combine, becoming so much more than ‘me’.
-Kat Ramsey, thoughts on living-
As I continue to contemplate these things, I am preparing for my next great adventure. At the end of the month I will be setting out on the Camino de Santiago with my friend Clara. It will be 850km of walking across Northern Spain for 6 weeks of contemplation and reflection. It is a path that many pilgrims have walked before for many different reasons. It is my hope that I can find clarity in these reflections. I look forward to continuing sharing my journey with you here. Growth is hard, but maybe sharing it with you will inspire both of us and spur on deeper conversations and connections with the world around us. Onward!
