It’s time to move on, but not before looking back.  Over the last 2 years, during which time my obsession with the South of France took root for no apparent reason, I’ve been curious to figure out what I would discover here.  Certainly the answers will continue to reveal themselves to me after I’m gone, as is the case with most things in life, but some things are evident already.

I’ve learned a lot in a relatively short period of time, about my love for yoga teaching and improved travel skills, for instance, but the bigger answer might just be something I told a friend of mine once.  She couldn’t figure out why she was unhappy since she lived in a gorgeous place, until I suggested she consider the possibility that we don’t live in our houses, but in our heads.

Obviously, this isn’t a novel concept, but I’m just now starting to get it.  When I got here, I was pretty worn down from some of the bad luck I’d been having.  As a result, believe it or not, I didn’t take in the degree of beauty around me.  Doing so now, and so intensely, confirms for me the power of your own influence, of perception and positive thinking.  It recognizes Buddha’s wisdom: “What we think, we become.”

For me not to have seen things that are so obviously, insanely beautiful makes me wonder what else I may have been missing lately.  I’m reminded to pay attention, to stay, as my friend and motivation guru Jonathan Fields says, “awake at the wheel.”

It is, indeed, pretty remarkable what you see when you open your eyes.