Today I went for a walk in the mountains. I needed to get away from all of this campaign pressure … I’ll have a day off from thinking about it all… At least that is what I had thought. But when you live and breathe this stuff it seems there is just no getting away; I am like a magnet for people ready to #EmergeProud and share their stories.  I sat down to have a little meditate when I got to the top of the mountain, and had the sense I was going to meet someone I needed to talk to.

When I got back down, sitting at the end of the riverbed a man sat quietly carving.

I don’t usually make conversation with people when I’m out walking on my own, but I became inquisitive and asked him what he was making.

He pulled out a velvet bag from his simple rucksack and displayed the most exquisite pieces of jewellery, all handmade from natural pieces of wood, almond and olive shells which encased tiny pieces of different crystals. Tim then proceeded to tell me that it was now how he made money to live on. Once a successful businessman earning a decent wage and living a life of ‘luxury’, he had woken up to the fact that it wasn’t making him happy.

He left his relationship and ‘steady’ life to move abroad and ended up living in a cave, becoming completely self- sufficient for a while and foraging for food in the campo. He described the transition as difficult but liberating. He said one of the most difficult things to get used to when sleeping in the cave was the intensity of the noises of the wildlife around him. Over time he described being much more at one with nature.

Tim’s brother had died of a suicide attempt, and he talked about various precipitators that led him to take such a huge leap into the wilderness. A need to get away from society is not uncommon when going through the spiritual emergence process. Tim explained that the only reason he was sitting where I had encountered him today was because a carnival was happening in the residencia where he is now living with his new girlfriend, and he had to get away as he’s too sensitive to loud noise. Heightened sensitivities to noise, light, foods and energies of other people is also a common result of having ‘awoken.’

When I asked Tim how he had ended up here specifically, he explained that he often hears loud whispers in his right ear, guiding him with information. He knows that this would be seen as a mental illness if he was living a conventional life. He sees it as a blessing, one that has led him on a path to liberation, and a new life with which he seems very content. He feels ‘in the flow of life’, in need of very little, but what he does need seems to ‘magically show up’.

Tim is not online, but agreed to his story being shared for #Emerging Proud. Only the Universe knows why our paths collided today, but whatever the reason, it was a reminder of the beautiful synchronicities of life at a time when I needed that. Thank you Universe ❤