Each summer, when I come back from Maine, my brain needs a bit of time to readjust to being back in Dunstable.

It might be a little wHierd that it takes me some time to re-enter a place I know so well.  But I’m pretty sure the astronauts have to spend time getting used to earth again when they return from the wonders of space, and all that time can’t only be the whole ‘get used to gravity again’ thing, so I’m not feeling too badly about my own re-entry adjustment requirements.

I’m just sayin’.

Some folks are majorly impacted by seasons, situations, the number of people around them, the amount of daylight, or dogs or cats or hamsters (which I always want to spell with a ‘p’: ‘hamPsters’), or french fries or (insert the thing that majorly impacts you right here).

My own sense of being is highly, highly influenced by my place – where I am, and how that feels, at any given time.

Each year, when we come back from Maine, I spend time weaving myself back into life here, right down to how the light filters into each room as the earth spins and the trees sway.

The old and now familiar rhythms, of a place I know.

It is a place of truly magical memories, right down to the silly – the leprechauns who invade and wreck the place every St. Patrick’s Day morning, and how many times Santa surprised the kids by just nailing the special gift (even when they swore they never told anyone what they wanted).

But, as you all know, Maine is where my heart yearns to be.

As much as possible.

Strangely, JoHn is comfortable with this particular arrangement – this affair with a place that I slip away to whenever I get a chance (probably because he is having the same affair… creepy, but true).

Today I traded messages with someone else who has a heart place. She is away from it right now, as she has been a few times in her life, but it always calls to her and she always seems to find her way back there.

I called this a ‘soul goal’, sort of flippantly.  But right after I typed that phrase I felt it settle down deep inside me.. and begin to glow.

Soul Goal.

Huh.

What is it?

I decided it is a quest of the spirit, but not a regular type of goal. You can create favorable circumstances for a Soul Goal to manifest… but there are no guarantees.

One of the coolest things about a Soul Goal, is that you can celebrate the same one over and over again – the way I do with each sunrise, or fairy wedding or, well, pausing to realize that I’m able to just be in Maine.

Sometimes this is just for a short, or finite period of time.

And sometimes, if you are really, really lucky, you get to do it for the rest of your life.

Soul Goals aren’t hard to come up with, you already know what yours are right now.  They also evolve and change (a very cool trait of Soul Goals)).

Here are mine. The first three are long term. They’ve been hanging with me for a while now.

Maine.

Soul dog.

Africa.

And the last one?

It’s tactical.

Always near-term.

A constant in my own Soul Goal realm.

Magic.

This is the Soul Goal realized all the time, yet is completely unpredictable.

Magical serendipities and connections with others, with the natural world, and even sometimes just in my own brain, that have me marveling at how truly amazing life is on this planet.

God I love that feeling.

It’s that hits-you-in-your-core oh-my-Gawd feeling that is so awesome and overwhelming that you can’t physically contain it.  It spills over, and often ends up rolling down your cheeks.

It’s the cross-post on a Facebook message that has me howling because I can’t believe someone thinks in the same bizarre way I think, that “me too” feeling that happens when we find our tribe (or realize how cool our current one is)… because it means we are not alone in our lunacy, our strangenesses, our humor… our perspectives.

It’s stumbling across an example of how great, or strong, or otherwise incredible our fellow humans are (I am so happily in awe, so often).  I felt this way watching a documentary on the Batkid last week – that Make a Wish transformation of San Francisco into Gotham City – so a five year old could realize his wish of being Batman? I knew the general story (I even wrote about it when it happened).  But I didn’t realize what went into it, how many people (everyday folks, corporations, policemen, actors, one President of the United States…) came together to make the day amazing. Oh yeah, and a little kid who survived leukemia lived a dream (and his family got to see him live it).

Goosebumps.

My Soul Goal of magic is also seeing something in the natural world that connects with something deep inside, and leaves me in stunned awe – a breaching whale, a spider’s web, a season’s first snow.

Whatever floats your boat and rocks your sense of wow.

Experiencing magic in real life is always a big Soul Goal for me.

So today, when I was checking in on a Facebook group, and ran across another person who was daydreaming of one of her Soul Goals, at the same time I was daydreaming of one of mine, I paused.

And smiled.

And appreciated this little drop of magic, this everyday “I get you” connection with a woman named Holly, who dreams of life and love by a special, golden lake.

I sent a little Soul Goal hope juju her way too (which is just sensible Soul Goal Karma stuff).

Thanks for readin’.

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