Aloha! I’m back. Hope you all had a great couple of weeks. I had a refreshing vacation in Maui.

If you want to get inspired, you should visit the Hawaiian Islands. They have changed my life; they may change yours. We all have places that empower us. The Hawaiian Islands do this for me.  Maui has a special place in my heart; it is where I originally came up with the idea for my blog. So, I thought I should use my holiday as a chance to reflect on my blog, past and present.

On Maui, it was amazing to go back to where the seed for my blog was planted in my heart and to see what had grown from it. I had returned with a finished book  - Stand Tall & Speak From the Heart- and had gained so much clarity since the initial inspiration grew on the Island a few years back. Sometimes, in order to realize how far you’ve come on your journey in life, you have to look back. That’s what I did this trip.

I randomly started my time of reflection on the flight there. During the plane ride, the movie “People Like Us” played.  We were in one of the older planes, with a big screen where everyone watches the same movie.  During a pivotal part in the movie, I was hooked by the accompanying song. It touched my heart, so I quickly took out my journal and wrote down some of the lyrics. After we landed, I googled the lyrics and found the song, “We Don’t Eat.”

This song is part of an album by James Vincent McMorrow, an Irish singer, who wrote the amazing album while in isolation on the Irish coast. “The peace and solitude served as a welcome relief from the London music scene, and the inspiration resulted in what would become Early in the Morning.”(wikipedia.org).You can read James’s full story here.

James Vincent McMorrow is an inspiration to me as I too am a creative person and he encourages me to persevere along the way. We both were inspired by the ocean. Many times along his path to create an album, he could have given up on his dream, yet he didn’t.  James was patient and let the messages in his heart reveal themselves when the time was right. It was reassuring to hear that others have had to be patient and persevere in order to fulfill their dream. James’s song reminded me that trust is important in life.

 “...Everything ebbs and flows as the songs move towards their inevitable end. I don’t sit down with an agenda when I write, I usually have a first line, and a vague sense in my head of where I’m going, but no real solid structure. Music tends to reveal itself to me over the course of weeks and months. It’s probably quite like sculpting, you have a chisel, you know what’s waiting for you inside the stone, all that’s left is to chip away the pieces and reveal it.” – James Vincent McMorrow

Hearing “We Don’t Eat” made me realize that even though I thought watching this movie on the plane ride to Maui was random, it wasn’t; there is meaning in everything. You just have to listen, reflect, and figure out what you can learn from each experience in life.

This was a beautiful start to my journey to Maui, as the day before I had just received the final published hardcover copies of my book. It was as if the creative journey had come full circle: the first time I went to Maui, I had the idea to write down my thoughts and now I came back a few years later with a book in hand.

We all have places online and offline that help us flourish. That to me is what this blog -Arianna’s Random Thoughts - is all about – a platform where we can reflect on moments in our lives that have evoked emotion in us and touched our hearts in our search for deeper meaning.

This was how my vacation in Maui started – I began the trip looking for clarity and found it. I will chip away and start deeper conversation through sharing the pieces of what I learned about myself in the upcoming posts. I’m hoping you will join me on the journey. So take out your notepads and start writing.  

What places/people/moments have touched your heart recently? What did you learn from them? Let’s share our stories!

Thank you for reading and your presence at this beach retreat. You Rock! I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts in the comment section below.

See you at the beach!