Freedom

There's no place like home.....but home is where you decide to make it. I can honestly say that I did not get homesick but of course I'm glad to be in the comforts of my own home. The comforts of my own home.....

One of the walks I took mid week in Budapest was to the top of a hill with a statue known as their "Statue of Liberty", although I'm, not sure it truly has the same meaning as the one we place on our own here in the US. But the thought of the meaning behind such a statement brings up how we can sometimes take our comfortable lives for granted, the liberty we have to be our own people, to have the freedom to define who we are and what we are about. (Picture above is of my intended destination. Picture below is the one I took when I reached my destination, the top of the hill)

I had alot of time to think on this trip because I did so much walking, in fact I added it up and I think I walked the equivilent of about 12 hours. Many of the thoughts that came to mind were reflective of some changes I would like to make in my everyday life, to which changes, if any, I would actually make in my everyday life. The things I take for granted, and the things I do that are not the best use of my time.

I asked Elena Lakatos, Sr Instructor Peter Lakatos's wife, a Chinese American living in Hungary now for ?...yikes I forgot to ask, but a long time, and of course married to a Hungarian....anyway, I asked Elena what custom, tradition or habit she would take with her from Hungary if she ever moved away, or back to, the States. She thought about it for a bit and then decided it would be the "slower pace" of life. She explained that during her yearly visist home to LA it takes her a while to get used to the fast pace.

We all know the fast pace we live in, sometimes we even complain about it. But what are the alternatives? Some say, "well, I don't have a choice". Really? Am I the only one that is lucky enough to knnow that I do have a choice? I have the freedom to do without so much. I have the freedom to spend most of my time doing the things I love. I have alot of freedom. "How far you see depends on how high you stand" (Marks says that all the time. Picture below shows the view from the top.)

I'll be thinking about the freedoms I choose this next week and I hope to have the energy, but more so the motivation to write about them. Travel can change a person, and I hope some of the thoughts and feelings I had during my many walks to change some things about my life, for the better of course, will in fact be lasting.....

But now I'm off to teach my first class in which I will share my new workout, "The Hungarian Hundred", which I will post video of later today! Woo hoo!