Just over 2.5 months in and Cape Town is a place of creeping mists, harbors, screaming seagulls and candy skies. I have really grown into such a state of contentment and I love meeting new people while we clamber up the mountain to catch the sunset or bond because the rain starts pouring. Personalities are so different, but you should never have to compromise yours to fit in. It’s all about finding your tribe and the beauty of it is you have yet to even meet all the people that are going to love you. Until you do you just have to make that second cup of coffee while watching the willow o’ wisps play while thinking about standing stones and Medieval myths or saving-sea-turtle-adventures while spending a lazy Saturday on the couch binging reality TV about the occult.
Being by the ocean is incredibly peaceful and I once again realize that I was made for sea salt, glittering corals and mermaid rocks. I am forever in awe and I finally worked up the courage to do morning swims. The water is absolutely freezing, but the rush is worth it and I might be able to talk to arctic spirits now, but I feel like a mermaid between the rocks, sea stars and seagulls while doing so.
Work is a riot of emails, deadlines and meetings between all the cat hair and there’s never enough time which is why through most of it I’m rethinking my life choices of becoming an adult while obsessing over buying coffee mugs while struggling not to buy mermaid scale carpets. I should’ve studied archeology, but at least I can watch Travel Channel. I can’t wait to travel again and having gotten my first dose of the vaccine hopefully brings me one step closer. After some harrowing days where I only got 4 hours sleep because of work stress (I cried a little, I screamed a little), paranoia over Alba’s naughty antics and wondering if penguins have knees, I once again realized the importance of setting boundaries. As Dr Caroline Leaf says, your value doesn’t decrease even if someone doesn’t appreciate your worth and you don’t have to prove yourself to anyone. I refuse to work myself into illness and now more than ever that work-life balance is important because we’re all just teetering on the edge of burnout. You can only do your best according to your own standard. Although, I’d rather just be in a flower field where I can watch the foxes play while eating pastries or just buy a bunch of tapestries and disappear into its’ folds. Running on misty mountain paths helps and let’s not forget the power of cute little gardens or trees. Most of the time I just want to bottle up the lichen-covered rocks and mist so that I’ll always have some echo of wild places in my pocket. That or just play hide and seek with the fey while hiking.
That said, I am still trudging toward that unknown horizon thinking, “why is the rum always gone?” We’re at that stage where HR has a lot of questions and we’re building a business case, but it’s gaining momentum. I’m reminded of Louie Giglio’s words, “Don’t despise the process by obsessing over the quick route to the promised outcome. God is using the process to conform you into the person He needs you to be in the future season you are looking for.” So we wait. While I wait, I read. I’ve read such amazing books this year and doing so has stirred up that writers crone inside my head again. My mind is like a hoard of treasure, each piece a tale to be told. But it’s cursed treasure and the fool with the treasure map is sitting on a rock somewhere distracted by a constellation of stars. Add to that that Alba is running away with my unicorn socks so the only option left is eating ice cream while staring at the ocean or thinking about faery revelries and flower crowns while getting drunk on nectar. Or maybe I can just cover my whole body in floral tattoos. From here on out, good vibes, magical thoughts and French folk music only.
KaraOtto Imaginatorium 