Meditation Series: Arriving Home.
When my Fulbright Fellowship came to an end in Tuzla, I was not ready to say goodbye to "being" in Bosnia. This led me to ask the following question. If we could live anywhere in Bosnia, where would we want to spend the next few months creating something meaningful? The answer was easy. My partner and I moved to Kulen Vakuf. Kulen Vakuf is a beautiful little rural village coddled and nuzzled inside lush and bountiful green landscapes. It is surrounded by turquoise waters from the Una River, coursing and electrifying this fairytale town. The water is so pure that looking at it from afar could fill your eyes with tears from its wonder. I think we both went where it felt safest. That is in nature for me. It was here that I created a series of meditations to help me alleviate heavy emotions related to childhood traumas surrounding displacement and unhealed emotions from my past. 
On the road to Kulen Vakuf.
It is not a coincidence that as I began writing these meditations in this serene space, the first meditation was all about relearning a sense of safety. Through my meditation practice, I realized my past contributed to deeper scars. Today, I know that growing up as a refugee and constantly struggling to feel accepted affected me. In the myriad of ways that a lost childhood, a lost home, and a stolen past only can. 
The backyard with the Una river behind me where I sat to write the meditations.
Once I accepted responsibility for matters within my control and took the past as it was, I could create a sense of safety by listening and learning to trust my voice to find my path. Relieving our bodies and minds after trauma is possible by reframing our experiences of the past. To move past the trauma, we have to go through it. To move forward, we have to confront it. Today, I felt at home no matter where I went. I learned that home is inside me. I found that home deeply rooted within me, with all her collective experiences being in Germany, the US, and now in Kulen Vakuf, Bosnia.
Please join me and sit down with yourself.
Close your eyes and tune into your breath. The soundscapes you hear in the background are the natural sounds of Kulen Vakuf. Let it immerse you as you journey to healing.
