What I’m learning in London…

It’s such a privilege. That’s mostly what I feel, being here in London. I keep thinking about how rare it is to get to travel abroad, as a writer, and talk about one’s work.

It takes a lot to get a family with a one-year old to London. Getting everyone free of colds at the same moment, coordinating two grown up’s work schedules, and checking off a three-page packing list. I’ve learned that traveling with kids requires not only bringing a ton of extra stuff but also bringing a whole lot of flexibility, lightheartedness and creative problem-solving.

Some snapshots of my time here…

• Standing in a brightly lit school auditorium and talking to a room of parents, teachers, and girls at a girls’ school here, being flooded with memories of my own early experiences at school…
• Flying up to Edinburgh, Scotland, to speak at the Inspiring Women conference and falling in love with the beauty of the place. Watching the castle and steeples and wind from the hotel ballroom windows. Being moved to tears by the stories of the women entrepreneurs who spoke there…
• Listening to three young people – in their early twenties – talk politics in the most insightful and witty way for a five hour train ride, and getting quite worried about our education system here in the US…
• Going to the Women of the World Festival, and talking to the sweetest local chocolatier before heading into my session. Participating in a hilarious and delightful panel about the self-help genre, and then giving a talk to about 300 women about Playing Big. The festival was so woman and mama friendly – there were about half a dozen babies in my session, gurgling and breastfeeding throughout. Loved seeing how a conference could be so inclusive.

I’ve also been working on developing the Playing Big Facilitators Training while I’m here, and I’m so excited about it.

I have a few more events to do in the UK, and then I’ll be making my way home. I think I could stay much longer here…

Whenever I write a blog post, I write with a question in mind: how can this be of service to the reader? What’s the takeaway, the lesson, the point?

So what do I want to say about this trip in that vein? What comes to mind is how I couldn’t have imagined it. And I don’t exactly mean because it’s more wonderful than I could have imagined, but just that I never could have imagined the specifics of it. I couldn’t have imagined the personalities I’ve met – whether the train conductor or the people from my publisher here or the student journalist I spoke with yesterday. I couldn’t have imagined anything like what this street we are staying on looks like. I couldn’t have imagined this particular book, what ideas it would contain. I couldn’t have imagined any of it.

And of course, I could never have imagined the people that surround me now in my life who weren’t a part of it a few years ago – most remarkably the little red-headed boy that is so full of spirit and whose distinctiveness just keeps carving its way more deeply into my heart.

This is one of the mysteries we live with every day and so always forget to be in awe of. That life brings us experiences and relationships in wild specificity and unpredictability. Whatever is happening in your life right now, it is not something you could have imagined. That is something to be made speechless over, I think.

Sending love from London,
Tara

If you missed my last note about it, click HERE to learn more about my new Playing Big Facilitators Training for Coaches, Therapists, Leadership Development professionals and other practitioners who want to integrate the Playing Big model into their work.