Before Christmas I left Ireland and I had really run out of reasons to be there … legally. But in my heart and soul I had a million reasons to stay and a million reasons why I felt like I belonged.

Belonging. It’s such a crazy concept. What does it mean to belong? Because there are things that make a person feel like they belong and then there are these rules in society that … what do they do… they allow us to feel like we belong.

I just don’t understand how, as humans, one group of us can make rules about where another fellow human can or cannot spend their own time. We don’t have autonomy over our time. There are a lot of things we don’t have autonomy over as a human race. But why? Because who said that we had to have things the way they are apart from other people?

People controlling people. And blaming it on something outside of themselves. Something outside of “us”. The rules are made by people. To govern other people. So if I am in a certain position and a certain place with a certain identity I can decide who can or cannot come and be in my place. I just don’t know.

This feels hard for me to write because it feels so personal that I can’t even get to the point. And because this is a free write I can’t get rid of any of it. I promised myself that. But really I am already reflecting on what I wrote about 30 seconds ago and thinking to myself – just say what you really want to say.

What I really want to say is this… I think it actually broke my heart to leave Ireland. Because I wasn’t ready. And the worst part of it all was that I had to go because a force outside of my own will and autonomy, made me feel like I wasn’t good enough to stay. I didn’t have any good enough reasons. I joked about it a lot. And that was the joke that I always told … that I ran out of good enough reasons to stay.

But really that actually kills me inside because I had a life, a love, beautiful friends, a home, a community, and the beginnings of a pretty fulfilling career. And most of all I had inner peace, confidence and was full of gratitude for my life and my surroundings. This place… Ireland… is my spiritual home.

Since Christmas, I have been struggling with myself because I am actually back in the states. I’ve been beating myself up over my communication skills about my new chapter. I have been avoiding even talking about it and in fact there are people over in Ireland, people who I care about and who are a part of my community, who probably don’t even know that I left! That is not the way that I would have wanted to talk about this situation if I had my choice. But I felt like I had to protect what was left of my broken heart. Every time I thought about it and every time i still think about it… I just am hurting so much to accept this life that I have created and the choices that it has lead me to … perhaps if I was working in business or in the sciences I would have been able to find a job that would let me stay.

Then I thought… well it’s great for me as a dancer and choreographer to be coming back to NJ. So near NYC what’s more to love?

My inner peace. My sanity. My confidence.

It is all slowly coming back. it’s all a part of me so I know it will be revealed in a new light as I allow myself to shed the fears that I have from being here and to mend the broken heart that i left Ireland with to come back to my childhood home and start a new chapter.

I just feel that I have not been able to even accept what I have been living these past few months because of the hurt that lies behind it. I wish every minute of every day, for a time in this life where people can go where they please simply because in their heart and soul they know that it is what they want or need for themselves to live a soulful life.

As a human race… we should be able to support each other to walk this land as if it was all our own because it is. All of it is ours and none of it is ours really.

This is what my solo was about in RAVENOUS. And I am only DELIGHTED to say that I will be back in less than a month’s time. In Ireland performing RAVENOUS at the Limerick Fringe with the Step Up 2017 gang again.

My heart is full thinking about it and my soul will be set on fire once again with my return. Until then I’m settling in. And slowly accepting. And also … reminding myself that I can feel however I want about a place that I call home because it is my choice to call it so.

Home is where the heart is … that’s what they say right? So if our hearts are inside of our bodies… then I can be at home wherever I go. That’s all for me today.

Talk soon,

B-