Love, Loss, and the journey of finding myself

I normally focus on writing about the experiences in traveling. It's not a secret that I enjoy traveling and emerging myself in other cultures. However, throughout life we sometimes experience another type of journey. a spiritual, emotional, metaphysical journey. In the last month and a half I have experienced more pain and heartbreak than I ever had before in my entire life. I felt the whiplash of a previous break up, I ended my rebound relationship to a man that was the kindest and sweetest at one point, I discovered that the same man I just described was not the nicest human being on the planet, I almost lost my father to an open heart surgery, and I fell into a dark abyss of depression and anxiety. To say that I went through a rough patch would be the understatement of the century. It was more than just a rough patch throughout the past month and a half I have felt the cold breeze of my past, I have heard the echoes of demons and ghosts past, and I have tasted the bitter sweet flavor of disappointment and karma. Life has not been easy in the last month and a half and I know that this is one journey that will last longer than traveling through the Appalachian trails would but I also know that when I reach the peak of this mountain I will be not only stronger but kinder and wiser than I ever was before. Life will take me through bends and bumps in the road but I will over come each and every one of them.
July 2014, just another month. Another training to go to, another errand to run, another argument, another fight, another heartbreak, an event that would change my life.
This past summer I embarked on a journey that would change me, transform me, and help me in the process of my own evolution. I read a book once that said that "ruin is the road to transformation" and I couldn't agree more. It is in the abyss of isolation and desperation that we find the will and the courage to move forward, to run with the wind, to test and push our limits and to transform ourselves into the person we were always meant to be. This is exactly what happened to me. I had to be ruined in order to be transformed.