“The only ship I’ve ever been on in my life has crashed on the shore of the Island of Sanity”

Book 1 coming to a close

Since returning home after 2022 travels and gliding into 2023 with some nice deep inner work, I’ve been reflecting on how the first 36yrs of my life—the culmination of which is still a couple of months away—feel like Book 1 of my life. Year 36 being one of major transitions—Book 1 ending, Book 2 beginning. So, when on the morning of February 15th, the astrology app Co—Star told me that—

“The only ship you’ve been on in your life has crashed on the shore of the island of sanity.”

I felt validated, thought to myself—“how the fuck does it know?!”, and posted the following on my Instagram story—

A screenshot of the app with my own commentary—
😆 that’s a good way to describe it, Co—Star! 😂 💯

🥁 Date Synchronicities

Speaking of transitions and endings & beginnings… if I had stayed at Mailchimp, today would’ve been my eight-year Chimperversary eve 🎉— hard to believe 8-years have passed since that life-changing saga began (read more).

Instead of that anniversary eve, today happens to be the six-month anniversary of when I submitted my “Declaration of Independence”, a resignation letter 💌 — also hard to believe that 6-months have passed since I started my new journey.

I mean, I do say—

“Time flies whether you’re having fun or not. So might as well be having fun.”

Things I’ve learned 6-to-5.5-months into my sabbatical

1. Work may sometimes feel like family, which is nice and a bonus, but EOD work is work, when you leave a company after years.. suddenly, a whole every-day community is zuuppt gone from your life. What a way to come face-to-face with oneself, especially if you’re taking a sabbatical to chill with yourself.
2. Various parts of me, let’s call them ‘we/us’, are in a major transition currently, but we are good and “lucky” and supported (ie: have good karma to take us us paar (onto the other shore))
3. We also have some bad karma
4. There are some parts of us in shadows
5. If I am to walk on the path I’ve set for myself since going to the jungle, and if I am to call in what I set out to manifest on my 35.5th birthday, then—
   • I must.. work through 4
   • Whenever the results of 3 show up, dig into sila samadhi panna even harder and just pay the price humbly I guess —> this one I’m still reflecting on
6. Step 1—after the realization of the truth of suffering, and finding a path to the end of suffering—is inner work. That’s where we are right now, and that’s where we keep returning to over and over again, so might as well always stay ready to tango with your daemons, always ready to cast away shadows 💃🕺🪩
7. I’m still enjoying my time-off and being able to do things that aren’t feasible to do with a set-schedule-driven job
8. Fears come and fears go, keep moving through them intelligently
9. There’s an ocean of kahaaniyaan (stories) in me that is very much looking forward to coming out
10. This project will take a minute—since I like to be intentional
11. I cannot wait to continue down this journey with as much intention, awareness, purpose, and equanimity as I can muster

Tathastu (so be it)