I’ve been a naughty blogger. I know this. Yes, I stopped mid-Bali. So to update…I arrived home a little over two weeks ago after an inspiring amazingness-filled seven month adventure. Life-changing? You bet. So much to be grateful for.

I cannot begin to wrap up that last month I spent in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Suffice to say it was the pinnacle of my entire trip, with the best people and energy and yoga and…fruit…oh the fruit! And black mango sticky rice…Ok ok, back to the post. I miss Thailand and all the amazing souls I met there, but the show must go on.

And go on, it has! Life since arriving back to America has been fabulous.

Things are happening. I don’t wanna get all Secret on you here, but seriously, you believe it and envision it, and it will find a way to you. Almost every day something happens. I’m starting to feel like paying the Universe for overtime. And you know what? It’s because I wholeheartedly believed life was gonna be amazing the second I got back. None of that “adjustment” stuff. Ok, of course I had insane jetlag for a week. But I let it do its thing, had an 11 hour sleep one night and poof, jetlag be gone.

I first spent 8 days in my hometown in St. Louis, MO. Unpacking takes serious dedication! I had a massive box from India, covered in over 200 stamps. I’d never seen anything like it. Mahavir from Arambol came through, good man! Going through my India things was like opening an incense-filled chapter of a book. So many stories, so many things, new and old, were stuffed into those bags. I found my glass and mirror mosaic elephant – my pride and joy purchase from India – in pieces at the bottom of that bag. A wooden Ganesh broke, too. I guess India was saying, as a reminder: aparigraha (non-attachment). Oh well, I have good memories of that thing on my altar in the Pink Palace, Arambol, Goa.

I bought too many random gifts. Never doing that again. I had this bag from Bali filled with things that I dragged from Bali to Thailand then left it in Bangkok while I went to Chiang Mai for three weeks. In Chiang Mai I bought a thai massage mat + bag (awesome!), which bumped me up to three pieces of checked luggage, and meant paying a $150 excess baggage fee. Great, I thought. What a way to go out spending money. Well, I think the Universe sent a little angel to guide me out of Thailand and on my way home. From the moment I left Bangkok in a taxi to the airport, things were in my favor. We were late, so we floated through traffic. My driver – this adorable Thai man – played John Denver’s “Leavin’ On A Jet Plane.” I cried happy tears, remembering listening to this song as a kid on road trips with my family. I arrived with my three massive bags and a ridiculously long Balinese handmade dragon kite wrapped in paper (for the nephew, of course J. Rushing to the counter with my stuff I tell the Thai Air woman I have excess bags and need to pay for it. She looks at my stuff and kinda frowns…

”You can’t carry any of those on?”

I said no, they are clearly too big.

Can you combine them?, she asks.

Hmmm…maybe I can.

Still, she said she’d have to weigh them to make sure they’d pass the weight limit.

“28 kilos. The limit is 25. Can you take something out?”

Ugg. Not really. I took out a book and watched the weight go nowhere.

So instead of saying ok, looks like you’ll have to pay the fees, she looked at me and motioned to the luggage wrapping station by the entrance. “Go there, I’ll let them on as one piece.”

Bam bam, another obstacle averted. I showed up to the luggage wrapping guy and he looks at my bags, tells me it’ll be 200 bhat (instead of their listed 240). I look in my wallet and I literally only have two 100 bhat bills left, along with some change. Smiling, I handed the notes to him.

The list of things like this go on. Suffice to say I made it home just fine. I even got to take a shower in the Tokyo airport. If you ever get a chance to do this, take it. It’s so luxurious amidst all the chaos and waiting!

With eight days in St. Louis, I saw my some of my best friends in the world, gave away some massages, ran a 10K, demoed a badass Specialized bike, and sampled the STL yoga scene. One week later, I packed up my stuff – again – this time for three months in Northwest Michigan….and Tahoe, NYC, upstate NY plus a wedding.

Michigan and me have a long, memorable past. Every summer of my life I’ve come to the same summer vacation town, a community of cottages in the woods and lakeside. People have been coming here for generations. Our cottage – “the Hut” – is nestled at the top of a hill in the middle of a beautiful, ancient birch and maple tree forest. This place is like my second life, my second love…not many people ever see this side of me. That’s me, in the top-right room of the “addition”.

This place inspires. We bike. We play tennis. Visit the local farmer and craft markets. We cook, hike, kayak, read, campfire, ‘smore, sunset, pick berries. Life moves at a different pace here. Every single person I’ve taken up here over the years has fallen in love with and felt the pull of Crystal Lake, Frankfort, Sleeping Bear Dunes…”Up North” in general. Think everything on “Main Street”, tourists walking down the sidewalk with waffle cones of homemade cherry ice cream, 1950’s A&W trucks cruising down the road, the beach packed with people watching the sunset over the pier and lighthouse.

I’ve been here every summer of my life, and I wasn’t about to miss it in 2011. While in Thailand in March during the vipassana, I realized I wanted to be here come June with my family. I told myself, when I go up there I’ll stay for the entire summer, teaching yoga and pilates at Anna’s studio, Studio On Main. I had no idea how I’d actually accomplish that at the time, but I put the idea out there. After one initial email and a little intervention from the Universe again, I was on the Summer schedule before I even arrived back Stateside.

So here I am, teaching yoga, pilates and meditation at the one yoga studio in the small, bustling vacation town of Frankfort, MI. Aside from teaching 7-8 classes per week, I’m doing Thai Yoga Therapy privately.

So. Back to manifestation. (Yes, I’m about to get all Secrety on you.)

Thoughts become things. It’s true.

And it’s time people start using that gift to change their reality and shine some more loving, positive light in this world.

Thoughts become things. Choose the good ones. (Thanks Mike Dooley!)

xo

Ames

PS. Hello Summer, officially coming June 21^st! Summer smells sooo good.