Untitled

[easterhe-blog]

Marie Kondo Your Life's Purpose

Marie Kondo Your Life’s Purpose

The problem with totally identifying with your life’s purpose is that the moment you begin doubting is the moment when you feel unraveled. This is because when you tie yourself entirely to your life’s purpose, you’re wrapping your entire identity to it. And if ever doubt or unhappiness seeps in to your purpose, well then that same doubt or unhappiness infiltrates your identity. I experienced that…

View On WordPress

[easterhe-blog]

10 Wedding Traditions You've Never Seen But Will Definitely Want At Your Wedding

10 Wedding Traditions You’ve Never Seen But Will Definitely Want At Your Wedding

So you’re not a regular bride, you’re a cool bride? Incorporating some of these nontraditional things into your wedding day could be just the thing to up-level your cool bride status.

  Flower Blessing

Incorporate a flower blessing in lieu of prayer, especially if your family is blending religions or is non-religious. To begin your ceremony, ask parents to come up and lay their flower…

View On WordPress

[easterhe-blog]

Cork, Ireland-

We’re hurrying, trying to catch a bus that won’t think twice about leaving us, and we’re hungry. We don’t know if time will permit us to find a place this early in the morning. As we walk through the thick, grey mist hanging over the streets of Cork, Ireland in the wee hours of the morning, Ben and I hardly speak for fear that our hunger will begin talking to one another and will leave a nasty mark on the start of our day.

The night before we had waited too late to venture out into the city in search of dinner and ended up with late night pizza from the only place open in Cork at 10pm. We learned days before, in Dublin, that dinner is served strictly between the hours of 5:00pm-8:00pm. Thinking that we would be so lucky to stumble upon a restaurant that was open in the wee hours of the morning to serve us an Irish breakfast was but a dream. Tension ignited when, finally, our ravenous hunger could no longer stay quiet. Ben and I began a heated conversation, fueled by hunger, that had spilled over from last night’s dinner frustration. Quickly, the tension ratcheted until we’d both bitterly relented on the fact now we’d certainly have no time to find a restaurant open to fill our growling tummies.

We’d lost our way on our missed search for breakfast. With heavy sighs and narrowed eyes, we stomped down block after block, still no closer to the bus stop that would take us the the Blarney Castle. Angrily, I opened my bag and pulled out the tourist map given to us the day before. With glaring eyes, we scoured the map attempting to find our current position. In the background, our stomaches still moaned. After concluding that we’d simply walk towards the River Lee, knowing that if we found the river, we could find ourselves on the map, we turned the corner to the most unexpected alley. The alley started off wide, then curved and narrowed the further in you went. That’s when we saw the glimmer of an interior light at what looked like a miniature cafe. The outside of the cafe was painted red and read, “No. 5 Fenn’s Quay”. I perked up, and encouraged my cynical counterpart to entertain me in walking down to the lighted window with a spark of new hope in my stomach. We began our descent into the alley as we walked from the wide street to the more narrow, curved end of the alleyway.

Just then a woman exited the cafe to set out two chairs to accompany the lonely table sitting outside. I suddenly felt as if we were intruding. It felt as if we were long-lost relatives who’d been away, without even as much as a phone call, for much too long. As if my guilt for showing up and suddenly expecting food was going to be judged by family members who were bitter because of our long-time absence.

But to my surprise and delight the woman hurried us in with great enthusiasm ready to feed us as if we were her visiting grandchildren and she’d been doing nothing more than waiting for our return. The restaurant owner, as she revealed herself in the first few conversational exchanges, explained that their menu would be typed up and printed later, but that she hadn’t the time to do it before we arrived. And without a menu to choose from she asked us, “What would you like?”. My companion and I looked at each other as uncertain smiles grew on our faces. It was like being at grandma’s house again. Waking up sleepy-eyed and plopping down into a chair to place your order for grandma’s family-famous breakfast. And just like that, Ireland felt like home.

Stories from Ireland- Story 1: Cork 

  Thank you for reading. My goal is to tell stories from places all over the world that only I can tell. I could write to you about the majesty of the Blarney Castle or the enormity of the Cliffs of Moher, but thousands of people have been there and have written about that experience. The sweet stuff, the stories only I can tell, is what lies in between.

No. 5 Fenn’s Quay

breakfast.

  Stories from Ireland- Story 1: Cork. Click to read. My goal is to tell stories from places all over the world that only I can tell. The sweet stuff, the stories only I can tell, is what lies in between destinations. Cork, Ireland- We're hurrying, trying to catch a bus that won't think twice about leaving us, and we're hungry.

[easterhe-blog]

The Day I Broke

The Day I Broke

There were many days where I broke this past year and a half. There were heart breaks, broken feelings, breaks in my spirit, breaking up with dreams, the breaking of things, taking breaks from myself, breaking up with fantasy, breaking through reality and just plain ol’ break downs.

I’m the kind of gal that breaks. I break open, apart, down and all around. This all sounds awful though doesn’t it?…

View On WordPress

[easterhe-blog]

Pick up and leave

Pick up and leave

During a conversation with a fellow jet-setter, I came upon this idea of priorities and its direct relation to money. As any responsible person knows your priorities determine your costs. That’s where you’re going to spend your money.  Example: a safe, clean, convenient-distance-to-work apartment is important to me therefore I’m willing to spend $x,xxx per month because this is my priority. On…

View On WordPress

[easterhe-blog]

Blast From The Past

Blast From The Past

I just took a walk through the not so distant past. Since returning to the States September 2015, this travel blog that I created back in the summer of 2015 has seemed like a giant Pandora’s box to me. Looming in the back of my mind saying things like…”You’re not abroad any more, you’re not a traveler any longer, you’ve started a career, you’re stuck, don’t blog…you’ve got nothing to say, you’re…

View On WordPress