Returning a “global citizen” after 3.5 years of travel
After 3.5 years of sacred travel across four continents — what changes, what doesn’t, and why coming home feels like the strangest pilgrimage of all. (5 min read)
Today I am pleased to tell you that I will be returning home to start a new job at the Australian National Maritime Museum. This brings to an end 3.5 years of travelling the planet and occasional contract work when I needed some cash.
I am filled with gratitude for the experiences of the last few years and for the dear ones who have made this possible, especially my dear mother and friends in New York, London, Paris and Abadiania.
I now feel like I am a global citizen with homes and friends in many places. Believe it or not, I’ve travelled to 26 countries in 3.5 years (with 5 visits to Brasil and France and 4 to Italy and the UK).
There are still plenty of sites on my bucket list but it will be hard to beat:
- the balloon ride over Luxor
- the aesthetic triumph of the Alhambra
- sunrise on 21.12.12 on Lake Titicaca (3 years ago today!)
- watching the storms come in on the Cliffs of Moher
- trekking in a snow-covered Grand Canyon
- swimming in the warm, turquoise water off Isla Muljheres; and
- finally seeing the Aya Sophia in Istanbul.
There has been a lot of arts and culture on tour. I love the world’s great museums but I’ve also been to many smaller ones on these travels (the Heard Museum in Phoenix is excellent and the Museum of Religious Art in Naples is superb). And then there’s been opera, ballet, independent theatre and six broadway shows.
I have visited many, many holy sites and these pilgrimages are the foundation of my writing (3 books so far). The highest of the highlights of the holy sites would be the Sanctuary of St Ignatius of Loyola in Spain, Jasna Gora Monastery in Poland, the shrine of St Kateri Tekakwitha in Canada, La Sainte Baume (the Magdalene site in the South of France) and the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico. Of course, the first time I experienced the service for the veneration of the Crown of Thorns at Notre Dame de Paris will never be forgotten.
I am sharing my experience to encourage all of you to manifest what you really want!
Three and a half years ago I was very unhappy. I prayed for money to enable me to travel and spend time on spiritual development. And so it happened! It was not magic or wishful thinking, it was a combination of effort and grace (but mostly grace).
The photograph at the top of this post is a boat called “Freedom from Brisbane”. It is kept in the Queensland Maritime Museum. When I was invited for an interview for my new role I was uncertain whether to accept and went to QMM for inspiration about it. The first thing I saw was “Ella’s Pink Lady” (Jessica Watson’s boat).
Before I could reach “the pink” I was distracted by a bright orange boat. The first thing I noticed was the name (“Freedom from Brisbane”) and I wondered if this was my sign to go to the interview. But then I noticed that the sailor’s name on the boat. The sailor was Paul McCarthy! This was clearly a sign. I took a photo, shared it and this story at the interview and got double the remuneration they advertised.
You can have what you dearly want too. Pray now!
Namaste.
© Paul McCarthy & Iluminar.au
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