In August 2024, I learned about a retreat a coaching friend was organizing to South Africa the following January. Now, South Africa was a place I had never considered traveling to, yet when I heard about it, my soul responded surprisingly with a full-bodied yes. However, my head was immediately full of doubt. I hate to fly, I hate organizing travel logistics, I hate crowds, and people generally annoy me. I don’t like to leave home. I love my bed, my strong Peet’s coffee in my favorite mug, the company of my cat, the calm of my backyard porch swing, and my daily walks.
But at the same time, another part of me loves to experience new places and meet new people, a part that loves learning (one of my core values) and finds thrill in doing something for the first time. There is a part of me that craves adventure. My Soul pointed in one direction and my head and body in another. Ultimately, I chose to follow my Soul, my true knowing. I let something stronger than fear and doubt pull me forward.
And, oh, the universe does have a sense of humor. The travel day was indeed a challenge and reinforced all of my travel fears and then some. My 10 p.m. direct flight chosen specifically for its southern US location to avoid potential January snowstorms was canceled at midnight due to, you guessed it, a snowstorm.
What followed was a two-hour whirlwind of rescheduling flights, arguing to get my suitcase back which they told me was impossible and assured me it would be retagged with my new flight for the next day (spoiler alert, it wasn’t), rebooking my South Africa internal flight, and desperately searching for a hotel at 2 a.m. in snowy Atlanta, GA. The night, though morning at this point, was capped off by a harrowing 2:30 a.m. ride through icy streets in an Uber, finally arriving at a downtown hotel, and grabbing the last room available.
Lying in the hotel bed that night in my travel clothes, no suitcase, freezing cold because the heating in the room wasn’t working, I decided that I was never leaving my house again. In that moment I was convinced I had gotten it all wrong, and that I was not built for this adventure my Soul had talked me into having.
However, I did manage all of it. I rescheduled the flights, found a safe place to stay for the night, avoided disaster on the icy roads, and wouldn’t miss any of the retreat thanks to the extra two days I had built into my itinerary. My two flights the next day went smoothly and my suitcase by some miracle, arrived in Johannesburg 4 hours before me, having been miraculously retagged to my original flight.
And the time in South Africa? It was nothing short of transformative. My heart and soul were filled with joy, awe, and childlike wonder during our twice-a-day game drives under wide-open African skies. I was immersed in nature, watching and learning about lions, the elusive leopard, cheetahs, giraffes, elephants, rhinos, dung beetles, Leopard tortoises, and countless birds like the Southern Red-Billed Hornbill.
It was pure magic.
Then there was the profound experience of leading the group in a poetry writing workshop. After reading Wild Geese by Mary Oliver, I led the group in writing their own version of the poem, giving them the opportunity to write about releasing something outdated in their lives and guiding them to reflect on and describe the natural environment we had experienced that week. In that moment, I found myself wondering if maybe I WAS built for this. Maybe my Soul really does know the way.
In Boyd Varty’s The Lion Tracker’s Guide to Life, there is a powerful line by lion tracker Renias:
“I don’t know where I am going, but I know exactly how to get there.”
This thought captures the essence of Soul Geography. It’s about tracking your life step by step, and learning to heed the quiet nudges of your Soul, even when they challenge you, especially when they challenge you, and even when you have no idea where the steps might lead. When tracking your life, you must learn to follow the deep inner knowing of the feelings, instincts, and truths of your Soul.
A question I ask you to consider in the coming weeks, How might your life change if you learned to follow the tracks of YOUR Soul? What new horizons might open up before you?
Under the African Sky
I do not always have to be right.
I do not have to have the answers,
to soothe the loud voices within myself.
I only have to be still and know that I am loved.
Meanwhile, the African sky spreads wildly above me,
the buffalo thorn meanderingly grows,
the giraffe munches acacia thorns,
the cheetah prowls through the underbrush.
Whoever I am, no matter how melancholy,
the world offers delight and wonder,
calls to me like the giraffe, curious and playful,
calls to me like the cheetah, wild and confident,
and offers itself the gift of being enough, just as we are,
perfectly glorious and magnificent.
Soul Geography 