Well, for those of you who have been following this crazy journey I’ve been on for the last two weeks, thank you. I’m home now.
We pedaled into the St. Louis area on Thursday evening and after a hiccup with our support vehicle, we were on our own. Luckily, Curtis and Nyah made it into St. Louis late Thursday night so he was able to shuttle us around on Friday after we toured Earthdance Organic Farm and made our way to the peaceful protest (my very first protest) at Monsanto headquarters. It was such a blessing to see Nyah and Curtis and spend some great time with our friends, Jason and Jamie while in St. Louis.
After receiving news that my father was involved in a single-car accident late Thursday night, plus the safety concerns with not having a support vehicle for the tour, I decided to pay attention to the signs and respectfully bow out of this leg of the tour as Lynnette and Liana drove to Kansas City in the rented mini-van. Our friend, Jamie, gave me a tour of St. Louis on Saturday by way of bicycle and then invited me to join her on a Trek Women’s Breast Cancer Awareness bicycle ride on Sunday, so I managed to scrape up another 55ish miles over the weekend, bringing my total miles to around 360 in the 10 days I was able to be on my bicycle.
iBody’s biggest message is to ‘listen to your body when it is speaking to you’. This isn’t your physical body, alone, it’s your mind and your spirit, too. Making the decision to leave the tour was a hard one. This time, it wasn’t my physical body that was raising the red flag, but my spiritual body. On Saturday night, Curtis and I went for a walk around the neighborhood and my decision was confirmed as a fat little toad jumped into my path. Now, I’m not sure how many of you actually know or research animal totems, but I’ve not had one lead me in the wrong direction yet. I encourage you to look up the meaning of an animal totem if/when you ever have a close encounter with an animal. It’s surprising how much you can learn from the awareness of the moment.
After snapping a few photos of the frog, finishing our walk and heading to bed, I decided to see what the meaning was for a frog animal totem. I was astonished to find that many cultures including Eqyptians, Celtics, Christians and Japanese consider the frog of great importance. There were several meanings, but the one that was most applicable to my life at that moment was that several Japanese travelers carry a frog amulet with them to ensure their safe return to home. Other meanings include being aware of a great time of transition and metamorphosis.
I do feel like it was time for me to return home, safely, tend to my family and business who need me and relish in the transformations – spiritually and physically – that have taken place in the last two weeks. We’ll meet up with the tour in Austin, TX, next weekend for the event at Sprouts Market presented by Natural Awakenings and then my time with the Fuel For the Body Bike T.O.U.R. will be complete. I still support the small team on their journey and feel strongly that they are spreading a message that everyone needs to hear.
Namaste…
October 15, 2012
Christy, you inspire me both with your decision to take this journey AND with the courage that it took to listen to your inner wisdom and return home. You have done so many amazing things in the short time that I have been privileged enough to call you friend, and I can’t wait to get together to celebrate these successes. Keep doing the good work, and most importantly, keep listening to your inner wisdom, it will never, ever steer you wrong.
October 15, 2012
Wow, Missy. This means so much to me. I, too, look forward to celebrating and doing some planning together. I adore you and honor your mentor-ship over the last couple years more than you may know. It’s amazing how much we want to fight the inner voice sometimes. But, you’re right…mine hasn’t steered me wrong yet. Big hug. 😉
October 15, 2012
Oh, Christy! I understand, and you have taught ME something new! I went out of town this weekend and had maybe the best time of my life, thus far. I had so many ‘ah hah’ moments, and the last night there, I was enountered by a salamander crossing my path. I quickly scooped it up and it crawled up my jacket sleeve. I found another one and I picked that one up as well. Someone snapped a picture, so hopefully I can get ahold of that soon. I looked up the salamander totem and here is what I have found:
“The appearance of a Salamander totem heralds transformation,
but offers assistance with this change from somewhere outside of ourselves,
either through an unexpected person or unique resource.
This assistance is temporary and will stay only as long as needed.
Harmony with the environment is very important to people with a Salamander totem.
It is key to a successful transformation – answers and solutions will be found in the environment around us.”
My eyes filled with tears when I read the above. Those words are so true to the experience that I had. Thank you for sharing your story and enligtening me at the same time. <3
October 16, 2012
Oh, wow, Lorraine! Thank you, so much, for sharing! What are the chances of having a salamander crawl up your jacket?! LOL! I’m so happy my words resonated with you in your life right now. Gives me courage to share more. Big hug! <3