A new journey is on the horizon…

In fact, this particular journey has been on the horizon for so long that I’d begun to wonder whether it would ever happen…and whether like so many dreams and desires it would simply fade into something I wish I’d done but hadn’t…

This time though, unlike when I stepped out to reach Bhutan on a bicycle, I’m not running away from a life I don’t enjoy. No, I love my life. I’m at my happiest…just as I was when I was when I was a small 5-year old…I want for nothing. All my needs are met. Love. Community. Health. A safe place to sleep. Fulfilling work. Lots of fun…

But that doesn’t mean I don’t need to journey once in a while. To ruffle the feathers of life… for my sake, and for others too.

And so, I asked my employer whether I could take some time out and they said yes. Which is great because just as my cycle journey to Bhutan was something of a calling – something I couldn’t refuse to do – this journey feels much the same. This time though, I’ll be on foot and far closer to home. In fact, this is a journey about home. And I’ll be walking from where I now live in Edinburgh, to where I was born and raised, in south London in a place called Croydon.

I’ll meander a bit in Scotland before journeying down the backbone of the UK, the Pennines. At some point in the Dales, I’ll divert over to the West side of the country towards Preston, then south to Manchester, along canal paths and the like, towards Birmingham, Coventry, and then to Hereford, Bristol, and Glastonbury. I’ll then make my way east through to Salisbury, to Guildford, and then my final stop Croydon.

It’s about 800 miles all told, and I have 3 months do it. Perfect. No sweat. Lots of breath. But there will be challenges. I have no idea what they will be, but I can’t wait, because it is in the challenges where feathers get ruffled, perspectives change, and new pathways to a more fulfilling life reveal themselves. 

A fair few of the places that I’ll pass through I’ve called home at some point in my life. And, since I’ve moved further and further north over the years, it’s sort of like each step will be taking me back in time. Gulp…it wasn’t always pleasant sometimes back then. But often we must go back to go forward. And one thing I am sure of when it comes to happiness is that when the ordeals of the past are left unchecked, there is often less happiness to be had in the present. But that’s to pick up on later on in the journey…for now I’m just stepping out…

“By going out, I was really going in…” John Muir

*** This is the second blog post I’ve written about this ‘journey about home‘. There will be other posts to update on my progress south and give reflections about happiness and wellbeing – I’ll gather all the posts together as I go on this page. You can subscribe to follow the blog if you like or just check back from time to time. Don’t expect much in the way of social media updates. The next post I publish here might be when I start – heading East from Edinburgh along the John Muir Way in a couple of weeks time. In the meantime, as pre-journey tensions mount, I’ll be trying to discern the difference between excitement and anxiety.