Living in Lisbon: 2020 Trip Around the World Part 3

Have you ever wondered at the beauty and majesty of life?

There is something magical and intangible about the power of travel. Yes, it’s exhausting beyond belief to jump several time zones, but it provides insights to something deeper. Or maybe that’s just the jet lag. ?

Each day we’ve been out here has been brand new. Living in a foreign country and a experiencing a place full of challenges forces us to take one day at a time. Every decision, every meal, every interaction carries a deeper weight with it. A deeper importance. Everything feels more desperate and yet free.

Nothing could be better for growth. I’m convinced of the power of travel and soaking up all that this life has to offer. I can’t help but feel like we were meant for this. We were meant to push ourselves far beyond what we’ve ever believed we are capable.

Today, I count myself lucky, full of love, and filled with a wanderlust for the future.

Highlights From January 2020

Here is what we’ve been up to this month:

It was a tougher start to the year than we anticipated. It took several weeks to get acclimated and get into a groove. We wanted to hit the ground running, but it’s taken some time.
We connected with a local church and intend to get more involved.
We’ve worked a lot at Time to Cowork. This work has been great because we didn’t get a lot of time to work while still in Maine. We were spending time with family and now we have had to catch up a bit.
We were struck with a new idea of leaving each place better than we found it. More to come on this in the future.
To continue to do our best where we are at and keep making strides. Sometimes we push ourselves too much and I can feel the need to slow down and reset. I think we both have this drive that’s hard to stop. But being sick and a little off means taking the time to recover too.
We spent a day visiting Sintra and seeing the Pena Palace.
Self guided walking tour the first few days. Awesome! Loved seeing the city just us two walking hand in hand and side by side as we explore a new place.
Biking tour. Loved this as we got to talk to other people throughout the day and enjoyed company with them.

Key Insights

We aim to take away key insights from this experience as we go. This is the primary purpose of the trip, to learn more ourselves, the world, and our best fit in it.

I need to regain a focus on reading. I’m currently reading two heavier books “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill and “The Knowledge of the Holy” by AW Tozer. These are great but are slowing down my progress.
It takes time to adjust and start connecting. We tend to not be the most patient of people, but we are learning that things take time. We can’t rush the process of connecting and growing roots, especially when health issues arise.
Intentionality is key, but being intentional about rest and recovery is important too.
You have to be super creative about exercise especially when jumping jacks cause neighbors to bang their ceiling in protest… Whoops!
30 days might not be enough to leave any real impact on our place of stay OR our own lives.

Prayer Requests

Thanks for your prayers and thoughts over the past month. This is a huge journey we are undertaking and couldn’t do it without you.

Health. As mentioned, we both have been sick this month with varying degrees of issues. Nothing crazy, but distracting nonetheless.
Continued direction for next steps and a clear goal for the year.
That Miranda and would find time for each other too. Working together, living together, eating together is amazing, but we need to be more intentional about our time as a couple to connect and also time apart to charge our batteries.

Thanks for sticking with us! 🙂

Pics of the trip so far below.