Tag Archives: one-way ticket

Four years in the planning and my dream is becoming reality — a one-way ticket to paradise: Oaxaca, Mexico.  This is not the Lawrence Welk boring,  Dave Loggins choral doo-wap version of A One-way Ticket to Paradise but a raucous, edgy “not knowing what the future will bring” hard-rocking style put out there by the Italian band Hungryheart and their “One Ticket to Paradise.“  Listen to this and you will know how I feel! In fact, listen to the entire album.  It’s an amazing lyrical adventure of how dreams, aspirations, and desires can translate into energy, and ultimately, reality.

My one-way ticket to Oaxaca (arriving on December 28) represents the ultimate freedom for me to savor, explore, and immerse myself in a place I love.  I am leaving my return date to the U.S. open, to be determined.  There is something so metaphorical about this for me.  My one-way ticket is about stepping into an unknown future where nothing is predictable and there are no absolutes –no schedules to keep, no appointments to be made, no deadlines, no annual reports or performance reviews, or measurable goals and objectives to be reviewed and approved.

The vast landscape of southern Mexico is filled with high mountain peaks, deep valleys, clear blue sky, the scent of musky soil just tilled and ready to plant with seeds of indigenous corn.  Life is warm, slow, satisfying, elemental.  I imagine myself in the hammock or walking along the path lined by bed spring fences. This experience will be my personal stretch to see what will materialize each moment.

For the first time in my adult life, I will be able to take more than two or three-weeks away from responsibilities.   I will be mobile and unfettered.  I will communicate from anywhere there is Wi-Fi.

I’m not exactly clear what this will “look like.”  This experience is like starting to write a story and not yet knowing how the main character will develop.   I remember when friends graduated from college and traveled through Europe for a while.  Instead, I went right to work and life happened, often unintentionally.

My commentary to family, friends and beloved husband is that ultimately, all we have is time and our health — both are finite resources to be used wisely with intention.  My intention is to be home in Oaxaca and North Carolina.

Bienvenidos a Oaxaca.  Regresso a Carolina del Norte.  Cuando quiero.