Why have I not been blogging?

As I find myself on the 7th month of my travels, I wonder....why have I not been blogging already? I guess part of it was laziness, and another part of it was lack of confidence in the idea that I could eloquently write about my travels and in a way that would spread knowledge about things that were important to me. There have been so many thoughts that have crossed my mind, information that I have wanted to research and share... from composting, to capoeira, to Argentine beef... these are all things in which I have recently experienced and I want to share! What I will try to do, I guess, is backtrack and post about my experiences, which will also incite me to actually research and learn more about everything myself.

For those of you who don't know me, my name is Tammy, but I will go by Little Seal in this blog. Partly because it is the English version of my capoeira nickname; Capoeira being the Brazilian martial art that I am obsessed with, and also because it has a nice Asian flare, which being Taiwanese, is one part of my identity.

After some thought, I've realized that there are 3 major areas that I identify with and that frame the structure in which I live my life.

1) Movement: Physical expression, particularly through dance and capoeira, drives much of my life. I need to be able to move every day, and the actual movement is itself a meditation, where I can become completely present and free.

2) Food: Eating, cooking, sharing food with others are major components in my life. I hunger to find out as much as I can about learning to eat in a way that is sustainable and loving as possible.

3) Community: Connections with people, for me, are the basis of living. This is exactly why I chose to become a teacher, why I love learning languages, why I love traveling. You find out that you feel amazing when you give support to someone else and when you receive it in return.

Basically my goals in life are to find and create a life where I can focus on all of these things. Since 2001, I've worked on and off as a teacher, and while I love the work, the system in which education is structured is faulty and too taxing. So I'm taking a little break. Perhaps I'm naive in thinking that I can find work or create a job which matches all of my values....but it can't hurt to try...can it?

So that's what this time is about. Traveling, learning, thinking, doubting, experiencing, absorbing. And this blog. It's about trying to find balance in a time where there are a lot of choices and a lot of people telling you what you should be doing. So, as I try to find my own balance, I hope to share with you the little pieces of information that influence how I live my own life, and maybe you'll find something interesting in it too.