As 2025 closes

Jan 4

Path curving through deciduous forest with green and yellow leaves. The ground is littered with brown leaves, greenery. The path is freshly paved asphalt. — Triglav National Park

Dear Slow Traveler,

As 2025 winds down, I want to acknowledge how much life has filled the weeks and months this year. And I felt a nudge to be with you a moment.

Thank you for being here in whatever way you are. I’m grateful to share this thread of connection with you.

How are you feeling in this moment? What is stirring for you? What would you like to nurture in the coming year?

In January, I chose my word of the year, RIPPLE. I hoped this word would remind me to be gentle, to keep my effort modest and kind, to invite expansion and influence with calm and ease. What I didn’t expect in choosing this word was how it brought my attention to water. I live near a ribbon of natural area with a trail and a creek, and I regularly visited the creek to witness ripples in nature. Each day on the trail throughout the seasons, I focused on some new ripple – an emotional reflection, a detail of wonder, something small that astounded me.

Black and white collage background with a night sky that reads Out There, a reflection of a girl in water below, and a hand reaching toward the night sky. Aqua rings are atop the black and white images with various words as part of the ripples. — 2025 vision board. I invited friends to offer a word I would carry into 2025. Some words are present as phrases --> fabulous=far but lonely route lands

Flattened yellow and brown leaves on the ground. A yellow leaf in the foreground with the stem sticking up holds a puddle of water with a tree trunk reflecting in it that looks a little like a centipede. — small astonishment: leaf puddle reflecting tree

This latter half of the year also held a journey, six weeks of slow travel in Europe to savor local cultures and environments. I rode the train. I walked. I pedaled. I sat outside and enjoyed the days, and each day, I invited myself to fully inhabit time and place.

The impetus for this trip was a week in southern France at the Come To Your Senses writing retreat. Afterward, Barney and I made our way to Slovenia for a two-week cycling tour to Pula, Croatia.

Map includes airplanes in and out of Zurich. 1. Luzern 2. Avignon 3. Collioure 4. Nice 5. Bologna 6. Venice 7. Ljubljana bike green shape dotted line south 8. Salzburg 9. Innsbruck 10. Zurich — Triglav National Park is the green area northwest from Ljubljana. Pula, Croatia, sits at the southern tip of the Istrian Peninsula, where the dotted line of the bike tour ends.

Cafe tables on a gravel seating area right against the lake with mountains in the distance. — After a slow travel walk with Sylvia (a college friend) that involved a long stop at a reclining bench overlooking Lake Lucerne, we lingered at this table (a local spot) until dusk.

Yellow stone buttresses and arched cathedral window with a fig tree growing in a tight space by the window almost as if it is growing in the building. — Avignon, a UNESCO World Heritage site, smells of lavender, rosemary, and sage. I loved the plants with architecture, including this fig growing in a nook of a city center cathedral.

My writing mentor, Karen Karbo, hosted the writing retreat in Collioure with guest faculty Brian Benson and Cheryl Strayed. In 2022, I expected to attend the retreat when Brian and Cheryl were there, but an issue with my passport (and a backlog of pandemic-related state business) resulted in me getting turned away from the gate in Seattle's airport. That story is for another time, but attending the retreat this year gave me new perspective on how the universe has been guiding me.

Colorful boats with short masts and stowed sails moored in a bay. A yellow stripe of sunrise lightens the sky with pink, purple, and blue clouds above. — Sunrises in Collioure are spectacular. I can see why Matisse, Picasso, and other artists stayed here.

Because I was unhurried, I was better able to absorb and integrate the insights and experiences that arrived.

Woman with long curly brown hair smiling next to a woman with blonde hair sitting at a table looking at Heidi Across America book. — I found my moment with Cheryl Strayed.

Light orange building. A black door with decorative iron in the arch above the black. 18 To the left of the door is a closed rolling garage door. Between the two is light orange wall with a painting of a naked man and woman embracing. — Bologna. Home to the oldest university in the world and two leaning towers. Plus, street art.

Four gondolas tied to posts in the Grand Canal. A spire with other buildings is visible in the distance. The water squiggles with reflections from the boats. — Venice.

A view looking up into a green patina dragon sculpture. The dragon's mouth is open, it's wings are visible, and it's claws on both front feet are curled over the edge of the pedestal upon which it sits. — Dragons are everywhere in Ljubljana - even featured on the town seal atop a castle. The city is also known for its marionette artists and bee trail.

Blue sky, blue lake, completely forested hills and mountains in the distance. A church peeks out of the trees on a small island at the far end of the lake. — We started our bike tour from Bled, Slovenia, an outdoorsy village on picturesque Lake Bled. Yes, that's a church on the island at the end of the lake.

Exploring a place on foot or by bike offers an intimate understanding of place. The textures of the earth, steepness of grades, smells of the air, temperatures of shadow and sun, sounds of the breeze, birds, water, and wheel, tastes of the local cuisine, feels of the landscape, and delights from close up to far away. The body enjoys nourishment and welcomes rest at the end of the day.

Slovenia Cycling Holidays organized our bike tour route, lodging, and baggage transfer. Barney and I chose to go self-guided. All we had to do was follow the GPS track and pedal. While both of those things required effort, we connected deeply with each other and the places we traveled through.

Woman in bike helmet, purple shirt, standing over a bike smiling. Behind her is a steep curved road paved with cobblestones. At the edge of the road, evergreen trees populate the mountainside and further behind are the sheer rocky walls of the Alps — The climb to Vršič Pass kicked my butt and was also my favorite day of the tour.

Ribbon of deep teal colored water between two cliffs of white stone with trees growing on top — The Soča River wowed with its crystal clear and teal colored water.

Pink lilies in front of a jewelry store. A tall man and short woman lean into each other in the window reflection. — Lilies in a vase on the sidewalk?! LOVE

By the time we returned home, I felt refreshed. I’d used my phone less and less as the trip progressed. I’d spent time in the forests and mountains, by rivers and seas. I’d nourished myself with novelty, creativity, connection, nature, beauty, activity, and adventure. I’d gained a deeper trust in the rejuvenating power of slowness, pausing, and doing less.

While traveling abroad helped me integrate the gifts of slow travel, we don’t need to go far away to benefit from dialing things back. We also don’t need to do anything different or be other than we are to be worthy of our own care. Attending to ourselves and attuning to our needs is actually more important when we’re at home, when we approach daily activities from the comfort of familiarity, and when distractions are aided by routine and habit.

As the year closes, I invite you to welcome life’s ripples wherever you are. We always hold a mix of feelings in our bodies at any given time, and imperfections make us human. Whether you end the year with reflection, creativity, down time, or setting goals for the year ahead, consider a pace with spaciousness, with pauses, with time outside. Watch the sunrise. Watch it set. Send love to the moon. Breathe deeply of the day and let it touch the bottom of your lungs.