back in Czech

Lowell and I just spent the first night at the bamboo garden in Prague sleeping in a tent. It will be our home for at least a month. I am really excited about sleeping so close to the earth and being separated from the sky by a thin fabric wall. Sadly the weather is not quite summer-like so I'm grateful for our warm sleeping bags.

Coming from Asheville where I felt so at home and part of the Tea family I am happy to be sharing such special space with some of our closest friends. It definitely makes the transition of coming to another home much easier for me. 

I am looking forward to reconnecting with my Czech friends, finding new work opportunities and motivation for some side projects I would like to get involved in. Lowell and I are also going to take part in a yoga course for healthy back with Lucie Konigova, our beloved teacher. 

I would say life is pretty good these days!

Everyone has "something"

I spent my last week in the US with Lowell's family in Atlanta. We went whitewater rafting on the Ocoee river in Tennessee for a day. As I knew nothing about the river itself, I had no expections (and no fear). I imagined we were going to borrow a boat and float down the stream, maybe ocasionally slide down a mild rapid. If that was the case, Ocoee probably wouldn't be the site of the 1996 Olympic whitewater competition.

I was indeed grateful for each boat having a profesional guide after listening to rather scary safety procedure talk presented by a "baywatch-type" overly self-confident guy. I wasn't sure whether I was excited about this whole rafting trip.

I do have to confess that at this point the most amazing thing was that we were going to take a school bus up to the river! My dream would have been completely fulfilled if the bus was yellow, not blue. But I guess the rafting companies know well that none of the high-school kids are interested in riding yellow school buses during their school break.

After getting off of the bus we met our guide Tanner, a guy in his thirties who started joking with the first hand-shake and didn't stop until we stepped out of the water at the end of the trip. He was a true professional with obvious passion for rafting. We obediently followed his vigorous instructions without hesitation and laughed at his jokes and stories. Some parts of the river were quite intense and we would have definitely been screwed without Tanner. He handled everything with such ease and confidence, it really made us feel safe and allowed us the enjoy even the wildest rapids.

Not only I write about this because I think it is really important to choose the company you go rafting with wisely - pretty much your whole experience depends on how good your guide is. I simply just cherish being around people who enjoy what they do with such verve and they clearly do what they are meant to be doing. I have been thinking about this more and more recently. Probably because I am thinking about what that "something" I am supposed to be doing is for me. It is inspiring to be around people who are so obviously following their path, or even just part of it. And I think it is perfectly fine not to know what our "something" is quite yet. However the question to ask ourselves is: "Are we not trapped doing something that we know is definitely NOT our "something"?!"