Monday, September 22nd, 2008 ~ Santorini, Greece

(this is the continuation of a travel journal that begins with the September 10th entry further below)

You may think that it is funny that I will be glad to leave the beautiful island of Santorini today, but glad I am.  I have even counted the hours a few times.  It’s not that it isn’t exquisite.  It is magnificent in many ways.  But it is raw, and rough in ways I never imagined from my postcard-view imagination.

This island was once named “Strongoli”…the round one.  Now it is a crescent that cradles the volcano that reshaped it…many times.  And I know in my bones it will someday do so again.  Though I also know it will not be while I am here it is a little like riding the Titanic for a few minutes.  Strange and intense.  I feel the lost worlds too…the civilizations that disappeared.  The only difference between here and Pompeii is that people still live here, and that the destruction of an entire people here has happened more than once.

It isn’t about fear.  And it isn’t, truly, that land elsewhere hasn’t experienced just as much trauma at one point or another.  It is the seismic activity that has kept me restless and clenching my teeth in my sleep.  It is the primordial movements constantly occurring.  Perhaps it is the loss of Atlantis that aches in my bones, and the fact that we would face a common fate if our world didn’t shift enough in time.

It was the Hotel Atlantis that we ironically took shelter in on our first night here when the storm arrived when we did became torrential and made rivers of the streets and lightning and thunder erupted everywhere.  Then, yesterday, it was sunny and we went to the Red Beach which was the highlight of our time here.  The rocky cliffs were truly red and the volcanic pebbles of the beach itself were beautiful and unique.  They also happened to produce a large number of agates, to my wonderful delight.  That’s what roughness often does though…polishes and crystallizes and cleanses.

So for this special day, autumn equinox, I wish for myself and for all of you that any recent roughness be something that produces a great beauty as softness returns.  Wish me good journeys as we return to Athens (just a few hours to go…)

Love, Jennifer

September 19th, 2007 ~ Mykonos, Greece

New!  Jennifer recorded a “message from Delphi” with sharing and sound blessing, click here to read more!

(this is the continuation of a travel journal that begins with the September 10th entry further below…)

First travel will break your body, then your spirit, and then your heart…and then it will make you whole again…

And if you watch carefully you can see it all happen right before your eyes. You can witness your rebirth through the ever-changing mirror of waking up where you have never been before, again and again.

I have never been in an internet cafe with laptops, a disco ball and a bar…but then I have never been to Mykonos before. Very shortly after arriving here I saw a boy in a skirt…and I knew I was in a good place.

It helps to have a good new place to keep your mind off of one you just left behind. I cried leaving Delphi…what else could I do? It isn’t just that I feel that I completed a soul mission grander than any I have known, or that I shared it all with a group of souls that I felt so completely honored and moved by. It isn’t just the energy of the sites…beyond description…or the fact that I am forever changed. It was the way we made family there that I will have for the rest of my life. It is the people. It is the fact that in my heart ancient Delphi and modern Delphi merged, just like the old and new worlds coming together in the remembering.

In our last twenty-four hours there we ran around finishing business, seeing dear friends for the last time, and trying to plan a trip to the islands last-minute. We also found out one of our debit cards had been being used fraudulently for several days, and had a couple of friends really let us down. And that is when the others rallied, and we were so lovingly cared for, once again. It was with that love that we were left to catch the one afternoon boat to Mykonos yesterday, and it is that love we carry on with…

It is something else here. I love the winding labyrinthine walks through town and finding my way around them through feeling. It is strange to share them with hoards of others carrying video cameras pointed above their heads at nothing in particular, and the awfully-resilient locals who live with it all the time.

Today we went to the sacred island of Delos. I have to admit there is a part of me that gets great pleasure from the fact that you access the sacred island from the party island. They are very close together you know. One of the greatest moments was riding at the bow of the boat, hanging over the edge looking at the intense twilight-blue Agean sea. There was nothing but twenty-five feet of free fall between me and the rolling sea, and it was as close to flying as I have ever come.

And then to arrive at an island covered in the ruins of temples…a scene like nothing else. Sitting at the natural grotto on the mountain, the source of the magical energies the island has been revered for, was like putting my finger in a socket, but I wasn’t aware of the extent until we got back here and I couldn’t move much for a couple of hours. Traveling to sacred sites is like that for me though. I get charged enough to carry the energy onward with me, like a crystal, and it generally blows me out if I do it long enough. It isn’t the same as being burnt out…blown out is like having been so wide a channel that you have to gently let it reset again afterward. I have a high threshold, but then I am a lover of intensity. How could I not be?

We have had postcards of the Greek islands around our house for so many years. Coming out here yesterday was a longtime dream come true. It is a really fun walk on the wild side, even just to look around sometimes, but my heart will be looking back to Delphi for some time now, as it has for a very long time. Just as I look back to my island home every single moment I am ever gone from it. These islands are beautiful, for sure, but none could replace the sweet one I call home.

Well, these are thoughts for tonight. We are going to try to stay up late enough to really see the town light up before we travel on tomorrow. My heart is with you all…

Love, Jennifer