An Open Letter From An American Abroad

Hi. For those of you just tuning in, I'm in Europe. Currently I'm in Germany after having ripped through Denmark, the Czech Republic, Poland, Switzerland and Austria. I'm on my 8th full day here, and truthfully it's been a great trip. You may ask, "Hey, Brian, what makes it a great trip?" I'd say, "As someone who likes to ask questions, that's a fantastic question." So, I'll answer that for you:

I've learned a lot about being intentional lately. One of my intentions for this trip was to be open to whatever happened. And on night one, I did just that hanging out with an amazing crew of folks in downtown Copenhagen. I received their love(something that I've talked about on this very blog as being difficult for me), I gave love(something that's even harder than receiving love) and I lived in the moment. So right off the bat I "achieved" one of my intentions for this trip.

I was fearful at the time that no other part of the trip would be as "good." Which takes me to my next point: I don't have to label things as "good" or "bad." What I approached events, circumstances, people, etc. in a neutral way and just accepted all of the above? I've found that there is a lot of freedom when I do that. So I say that to say this: I've felt sad, down, frustrated, fearful and disappointed at various points in time throughout this trip. There was a time in my life that I would have said to myself, "Oh no, Brian, you CAN'T feel that bad. You're in Europe dude! Suck it up! Don't be sad!" One of those times was about 45 minutes ago! And yet, this time I chose to get up, get moving and press into those "negative" feelings. And guess what? I'm having an amazing meal, one that the waitress just tried to take from me because I'm feverishly typing, and I never would have experienced this had I sulked and felt sorry for myself.

So that's why it's a great trip. I'm on my own. This is a reallllllllll challenge for me to be out on my own, making my own decisions and figuring things out. At my worst, I want people to figure things out for me. But I'm finding, like Michaela at my Airbnb said, the answers are inside of me. And she couldn't be more correct in my opinion.

I'm hugely thankful to be learning and growing in such a beautiful part of the world with wonderful people.

However, the whole point of this post is to wish all of my friends, family and coworkers a happy 4th of July! I do miss all of you! I do hope you all are having a wonderful day of fun and fellowship as you celebrate the freedoms we have!