More images from my pilgrimage

self-esteem·Ricci-Jane Adams·Sep 22, 2025· 4 minutes

So I have been home for a week! Time is such a weird experience. It feels as though I was never gone, and yet the ripple effect of my time away is ever present.

It has been a beautiful week with my youngest son. He is off to Magnetic Island for the school hollidays today, so I wanted to make the most of our time together after being away from one another for three weeks.

We have started playing badminton together, something I played in my teen years when I lived in Oman, and loved! He was introduced to it at school last term and loved it. We are lucky enough to have a big badminton centre around the corner from us, so it has become a weekly ritual. I am so grateful. My little one has struggled with self-esteem, and I have struggled with finding shared activities that would reduce screen time. It is a full circle moment to come back to badminton with son, who is the same age as I was when I started playing.

We also excitedly got back into Wednesday, the TV show, which we are watching together, and we caught up with my best friend and her daughter, who happens to be Luka's bestie. On Saturday night, we attended Luka's soccer club's presentation night, and Luka received the Coach's Award. It meant so much to him. His coach was sitting next to me (BTW, did you know I was the team manager! I was one of four women who volunteered. I never thought I'd be a soccer mum but I love supporting Luka with his passion). Steve, his coach, shared why Luka was chosen for the award. His conisderation, thoughtfulnes, someone Steven could genuinely discuss the team tactics and performance with, helping to pack up, and being a real team player.

Luka with his Coach's Award for this soccer season

I know how much the award meant to Luka. As a kid who doesn't draw attention to himself, and isn't necessarily the stand-out talent, his consistency, dedication and effort was noticed. And it mattered so much to him. In their final game, Luka played with a cold and (we now know) a broken thumb! But he didn't want to let his team down.

We also spent quite a bit of time at the hospital getting said broken thumb sorted. He has a break that is healing, but ligament damage that was still causing pain and swelling. He now has it sorted and I am so grateful to our free healthcare in Australia. He is off on his holidays with a removable plastic cast, which means he can swim and stay cool in the warm Queensland weather.

I am so grateful that this busy first week home, that featured jetlag and catching up with work, as well as rescheduling many things to accomodate hospital visits, is the ease with which I could manage it all.

My pilgrimage filled my spiritual cup. But it was my return home to 'reality' that showed me how much more I have integrated my human and divine - anthropos -self. During my time away, this quote kept running through my mind...

"Where ever I go, there I am."

The original quote from Jon Kabat-Zinn is, "Where ever you go, there you are". For me, it speaks to my capacity to trust that I am in exactly the right place, no matter whether I am on a catamaran in the Sea of Cortez, or in the Emergency Department of the hospital. It allows me to show up to it all, fully present and radically accepting. It is a statement that offers immense peace.

My return has been peaceful. I am, always, in exactly the right place beacuse the Divine Mother Goddess is in ALL of it - the holy and the mundane, the ordinary and the majestic. It is all worthy of my full presence, this presence is what brings me deep peace.

Here are some more images from my epic adventure...