Passion Projects & Life Coaches

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joshua trees

I might be a yuppy but, today I'm going to visit a Life Coach.  I KNOW.  A.Life.Coach.

Here's the thing.  I don't want to be one of those people who wake up at 85 (too ambitious?  alright fine.  75.) and realize they don't really know what they're passionate about.

I love being at sea.  I love learning about new cargoes.  I love visiting new ports.  I love a lot about shipping.  

Of course there's a BUT.  Those things feel incredibly unsustainable.  Especially when you consider that you invest in your passion.  I've invested a lot in my career and It'll never be just mine.  Just mine to nourish or change.  There is always the possibility that I could start my own shipping company and then yes those things would be just mine.  

This is the reason I'm ready to start nourishing my own passion projects.  I'm ready to invest in something that feels sustainable and more importantly something that feels like it belongs to me.

So off to the life coach I go.

How do you nurture your passion?

Flowers of the Desert :: Cholla Cactus

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cholla cactus

How does every good story start?  Well, if you ask me it starts with a trip into the wilderness to go to the bathroom.  Truly, it's how I've begun some grand adventures.

Road trips are rife with bathroom emergency situations (especially if your name is Megan the Nautie Mermate).

Driving along I had to poo.  Like baaaad.  All of a sudden we see signs for Joshua Tree National Park.  I basically did a hard left turn of I-10 because well:  A NATIONAL PARK MUST HAVE A RESTROOM, RIGHT?!

We find ourselves on a long windy road quite a ways from the visitor center.  I screetch over to the side of the road frantically take off my slippers and put on sneakers and trek into the sand to find a place to poo amongst the cacti.  I didn't think I could make it to the visitor center...

My Mom is all, 'don't worry, no one will see you...'.  I'm like...this is a road!  There are no trees!  Cacti!  I can't squat!  Aaaaaaah!!!!!!

So I ran back to the car jumped in the drivers seat and burned rubber for the visitor center (while my Mom chortled in the passenger seat).

Long story short.  I made it.  

Where the heck am I going with this?  Well....during my trek into the sand I saw some really pretty flowers.

On our way out of the park I stopped to photograph some Cacti.  That one stop led to many stops and now I've got a collection of some photos I love!

Poop Expedition turned Photo Safari.  Of course.

Let me introduce you to the Cholla Cactus.  The first of a few Desert Flowers I'll be sharing with you!

I think whats great about the Cholla Cactus is how phenomenally complex their skeletons are.  They're equally gorgeous once they've passed on.

To be fair these Cholla Cacti don't have flowers on them right this second...but you can see some examples here.

What I didn't realize is that there are quite a few different types of Cholla.  The ones I've photographed are Silver Cholla (I think).

Click through to see a few more images.

Who knew that one of my favorite parts of the trip would be spawned by a poo emergency?!

The only bummer here is that I've always wanted to go to Joshua Tree National Park however; we entered from the Southern entrance it was a long drive to get to the heart of the park where you can really see 'the good stuff'.  We didn't have enough gas to make it there.  So I basically paid 15 dollars to go poop and then missed the park.

The good news?  Flowers of the Desert.

Nautie Randomness VII

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cacti

I've been working on getting my ship together (see what I did there?).  I've been writing thank you notes, running errands, reorganizing my car and suitcases, laying on the couch watching so you think you can dance, making kale smoothies, trying to eliminate milk from my coffee, organizing photos, working on future blog posts (hello slacker-ville) and text messaging friends and family of future sightings.  Whew.  I'm exhausted and maybe a little hungry.  

Other randomness, you ask?

My auntie has three chihuahuas and they're hilarious.  They make funny faces and run around the yard.  They've definitely been providing some comedic relief.

California needs some water.  It's dry.  My lips and elbows are chapped.  Let's hope for some rain and in the meantime I'll have another glass of water.

Don't ever go into a bead store if you don't actually need beads.  I spent a crap ton of money on beads...and now I'm looking at them thinking when the heck am I going to have time to bead?!

I took a roll and tone class yesterday at a yoga studio.  Have you ever heard of such a thing?  There was a big foam (like hard foam) roller and we rolled our bodies all over it for kind of a full body massage meets core work out.  It was maybe a little harder than I expected.  Who knew it was gonna hurt like a bitch when I rolled my buns over a foam roller?!

The photo I put up there is a cactus that we saw near Joshua Tree National Park....I'm gonna make it part of a series that I'm kinda looking forward too.

I'm really hoping that this little post here resets my creative juices and gets me back on the blogging band wagon!  Come ooooon creative juices!