Please forgive me for being remiss on posting lately! Sometimes, life is so consuming that living gets in the way of documenting life. I don’t necessarily think that’s a bad thing!

Asheville is splendid. Many parts of it are breath-takingly beautiful! There are tons of cool shops and there’s a lot going on all the time. I feel certain thisis the right place for me.

Today, I visited a gem festival in downtown. This area has a wealth of great stones, I guess because of the age of the mountains, erosion over years has led to lots of semi-precious stones being right near or at the surface. I hear that even if you go hiking nearby, it’s entirely possible you’ll stumble across clear quartz, amathyst, rubies, emeralds or even gold. There are lots of mines in the area, including ones where you can go in with a bucket and keep what you find. The tricky thing is how different the raw stones look, but if you learn how to identify them (you can get guides at the mines), then you are set. At the festival today, there were tables and tables of venders selling gems and minerals. There was some amazing stuff! There were a few amathyst specimins I fell in love with, but that were around $300 because they were huge formations. I could very easily have spent thousands today, if I had it to spare. All the same, it was really fun looking at everything.

After that, I just walked around dowtown. A lot of shops were closed, because it was Sunday late afternoon, but I still got to see some great stuff. There are so many stores here I love!

The energy of the mountains is so great! I also love seeing the beautiful skyline all the time. I saw a sign that said, “Asheville, Land of Sky.”. It’s so true, the skyline is really a lot of what makes it so beautiful. Plus, a lot of the neighborhoods are built such that all the houses are tucked into greenness. Many roads in town feel like they are in the middle of the woods.

I love the architecture too, it’s just my style.

Asheville is the land of many things, including a lot of “weird,” hippy, new age, artist-type folk. You know, people like me! And this, I’m both excited and nervous about! I partly moved here because of the big population of alternative folk, but now I’m apprehensive. I’m nervous about fitting in. What if they are all phonies? What if I’m just a phonie? This really all couldn’t be real, could it?

I am staying at a pretty decent extended-stay place until I get my living situation sorted out. I’m hoping to find one or two cool people to roommate with, and rent a house in a pretty part of town that’s also accessible to things going on. I’ll let you know what’s going on with that when I know.

I am sitting in a king sized bed in a motel 6 in Knoxville, TN with Letterman on the TV. Joy is sleeping sideways on the bed as I write this. I am eating combos and wishing I had gotten some real food for my room.

The mountains are so beautiful and I love the deep wise energy I’m feeling from them. That, more than anything, convinces me I’m doing the right thing.

Tomorrow I arrive in Asheville, as I am and with what I have. There’s a certain naked humility in arriving at my intuited destination never having been there before, having only a van of stuff and less money than I had planned to have at this point.

(Craig Ferguson just came on. Goofy, goofy man)

Moment of truth, huh? Did I mention I feel naked? Soul naked! This whole journey has been a soul journey, with intuition as my guide. It’s been scary and it’s felt really good, too! It’s very clearing and it has allowed me to create an energetic alignment within myself.

I am going back and forth in my head, trying to find convincing validation that what I’m doing is right. Doubt is a silent, infinite ongoing question sitting right next to me. Late night TV is a nice distraction, but I also feel the urge to just sit quitly with my discomfort and either make peace with it or go to sleep.

So, that’s what I’m going to do. Night-night!

I read once that Shamans believe that little pieces of your soul can get caught and stuck in the past. Soul retrieval is going back to retrieve these lost fragments.

Today, I experienced a bit of soul retrieval. I hung out with a friend of mine who I’ve known a long time. Years ago, she once reached out to me for help, and I cowardly pulled away from her. I have regreted this so much over the years, because it was very much the wrong thing to do.

Today, I apologized. I don’t think an apology fixes that I let her down, but it’s something. It can feel really good to hear someone acknowledge something they did was wrong.

Afterwards, I felt better than I had even imagined I would. It was nice hanging out with her, and that’s a lot of my good feeling, but I also think I got a piece of my soul back. I feel more whole!

That’s a lot of what this journey is about to me, soul retrieval. I’m getting back lost pieces of myself. I am becoming at peace with myself, and it feels really right!