Last Updated on December 18, 2017 by Christine Kaaloa

Lockets of Love  : A Promise for Endless Love

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step”
– Lao Tzu

New Year, New Me ? Not exactly.

In 2010, I started my gap year with a Korea-bound work contract and hoped the change might spark new realizations of my future. While I love expat life and find joy in teaching English in Korea, the same old career dreams and callings prevail as well as, the yearning for extended travel. With 2011 on the rise, I get to wondering:

What if my old and new self aren’t so different?

While my expat life may be coming to an end and I may not have a clear vision of what my future yields, there’s one only one certainty to arriving at where I

need to be:

Take one step and put one foot in front of the other…

Travel Destination 2011: Falling to Love

As I said before, trusting the unknown has been my main lesson and especially with solo travels. However, knowing what to trust is still a bit hazy. Too often, we end up trusting our logic, fears and worries. Meanwhile, the clichés of following your heart, dream or intuition while inspiring, are still a vague apparatus.

With my mom bedridden with the Korean cold, this New Year’s Eve I made a pilgrimage to see my oracle high upon the mountain, where my first memory of falling in love with Korea began.

I wanted to know…

1)  Where was my 2011 travel destination bound for?

2)   How would I continue my travel dreams and what purpose could it serve if only for me?

Namsan Seoul Tower

Fall in love.

…The oracle said, as I looked out over the flickering city lights of a wintry Seoul.

Love is where dreams happen and take shape.

You may know this love feeling– it’s either fevered and ecstatic as if chasing a drug or chill and poetic as if quietly following one’s inspiration like a trail of rose petals and butterflies. Pursuing love is to tail a calling into the unknown, into the mystery of life, into curiosities… until you fall… to love… your destiny.

Is falling in love is scary? Yes. Does it sound like a crazy thing to do? Of course! Love is worrisome with no foreseeable destination; it has unfathomable highs and bottomless low. But, the bottom line is…we still want to do it anyways!

And with that, my oracle said-

So do. And this 2011, do it brilliantly.

NYE Countdown at Bosingak Temple

Happy Shiny 2011 to all.