Mind Now

audacious living for the faint of heart

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  • Piz Buin Nostalgia

    Piz Buin Nostalgia

    That’s the strange thing: why the scent of this suntan lotion on this beach is giving me a sad longing for the summer of 2019, when it might just as easily trigger a happier memory of this past summer.

    Lynette Adams

    November 4, 2022
    memoir, travel
    digital nomad, Europe, inspiration, travel, writing
  • What I do for a Living

    What I do for a Living

    Earlier this month, I reduced my essential possessions to 23 kg plus carry-on and resumed a pandemic-friendly version of my old nomadic way of life. I’m cat sitting in a neighbourhood of Toronto I’ve never seen before. Just walking the block around my building, I’m feeling the lights come back on in corners of my […]

    Lynette Adams

    November 22, 2021
    memoir
    digital nomad, featured, housesitting, petsitting, travel
  • A Dubious Guide to Europe’s Beachknitting Venues

    A Dubious Guide to Europe’s Beachknitting Venues

    Having spent a fair share of time knitting on a beach in Nerja this week, I’ve been reflecting on the many beaches I’ve knit on over the past few years, and the unique features of each. Here’s my unscientific and not-very-extensive roundup of the standout beach-knitting venues I have encountered. Ramsgate, England: Good people, gangster […]

    Lynette Adams

    December 11, 2019
    travel
    beach, beachknitting, Europe, humour, knitting, travel
  • More Tips on House Sitting

    More Tips on House Sitting

    It was a large day when this piece of mine went live in the New York Times. A bunch of folks contacted me afterwards, saying they want to try house sitting while travelling. And, because I like to tell people what to do and how to do it, I thought I’d share some more bits […]

    Lynette Adams

    November 19, 2019
    travel
    Europe, housesitting, petsitting, travel
  • Dispatch from a Dry Spell

    Dispatch from a Dry Spell

    One of the upsides of freelancing is that, with multiple income sources, you don’t take too big a hit if one client falls away. The downside is that, when multiple clients go silent at once, it can really mess you up. You don’t get a pink slip, you don’t get two weeks notice, and you […]

    Lynette Adams

    October 31, 2019
    travel, writing
    inspiration, travel, work, writing
  • When September Ends

    When September Ends

    I used to work in college admissions, where summer was our busiest time of year and we waited until the new students had gotten in and settled before we could take our vacation. Green Day’s “Wake me up When September Ends” was our theme song. For some of my adult life, September was a depressing […]

    Lynette Adams

    September 4, 2019
    memoir
    back to school, inspiration, travel, work
  • Finding Stillness in the Bla Bla

    Finding Stillness in the Bla Bla

    You have to suspend your need to understand everything or, really, anything. You need to treat the spoken word like music and simply lean back into the soundtrack of chatter and laughter. I’m spending my mornings at a piece of the waterfront aptly called Bla Bla Beach. Language is a tricky thing here. I’m in […]

    Lynette Adams

    August 8, 2019
    travel
    Montenegro, relationships, travel
  • Return to Herceg Novi

    Return to Herceg Novi

    Arrived in Herceg Novi yesterday after a delayed flight from London Gatwick to Dubrovnik. The taxi driver, arranged by my Airbnb host, didn’t speak English but still managed to make it clear to me that he’d been waiting for three hours. His sign had my name spelled Lynekke, the Ts no doubt lost in translation […]

    Lynette Adams

    August 1, 2019
    travel
    Europe, Montenegro, travel
  • Alone in the World

    Alone in the World

    Here’s a question I get from time to time: Do you get lonely? The straight answer is: Yes, of course, don’t you? But it’s a Tardis question, right? The inside is bigger than the outside. When people talk about loneliness, they’re expressing a concern around social connection, which is a basic human need. But I […]

    Lynette Adams

    July 27, 2019
    mindfulness, travel
    anxiety, inspiration, loneliness, mental health, reading, relationships, travel
  • This Limping and Mutilated Story

    This Limping and Mutilated Story

    “I keep on going with this limping and mutilated story because I want you to hear it, as I will hear yours too if I ever get the chance, if I meet you …. By telling you anything at all, I’m believing in you. I believe you into being. Because I’m telling you this story, […]

    Lynette Adams

    July 21, 2019
    mindfulness, writing
    creative writing, inspiration, writing
  • How long do you plan to keep doing this?

    How long do you plan to keep doing this?

    How long do you plan to keep doing this? That’s the question I’m having trouble answering these days. When I think about the prospect of my itinerant lifestyle coming to an end, I imagine only sad imperatives. An illness forcing me to remain under a doctor’s care. Some formless situation compelling me to take a […]

    Lynette Adams

    March 30, 2019
    mindfulness, travel
    anxiety, depression, inspiration, life changes, mindfulness, personal growth, travel, work
  • A Matter of Life and Death

    A Matter of Life and Death

    My father died on this day in 1981 when I was ten years old. It was of course a shock, but it was not a surprise. My earliest living memory is of visiting him in hospital after he’d had a heart attack. I guess I was about three, and what I remember about it is […]

    Lynette Adams

    March 13, 2019
    memoir, writing
    bereavement, family, mental health, parents, relationships, travel
  • White No Pink

    White No Pink

    Seems I can’t walk by an almond tree full of blossoms without stopping. When I first came across them in Paphos two years ago, I thought they were cherry blossoms, despite the wrapper from the Greek chocolate bar company with these very pink flowers on the wrapper of the bar with almonds in it. The […]

    Lynette Adams

    February 23, 2019
    travel
    almond trees, almonds, cyprus, flowers, nature, spring, springtime, travel
  • How Hard Did Aging Hit?

    How Hard Did Aging Hit?

    The challenge is to post your first Facebook profile image with your most recent. I joined Facebook in 2007, but the most recent image of myself I could find at the time was from about 2004. I didn’t have a machine that could take a selfie and post it online. Also, my vocabulary didn’t yet […]

    Lynette Adams

    January 15, 2019
    memoir, mindfulness, Motivation
    aging, how hard did aging hit you, travel, women, writing
  • Good Enough for a Girl Like Me

    Good Enough for a Girl Like Me

    “For last year’s words belong to last year’s language and next year’s words await a new voice.” —TS Eliot Remember when Queen Elizabeth II characterized 1992 as an annus horribilis for the Royal Family and we giggled because it made us think of something like horrible asshole? The year 2018 had some stupid bad luck. […]

    Lynette Adams

    December 31, 2018
    memoir, mindfulness
    2018, 2019, digital nomad, digitalnomad, freelancing, relationships, travel, women
  • The Most Wonderful Time

    The Most Wonderful Time

    It’s the most wonderful time of the year. That song, right? It picks you up in its waltzing rhythm and you feel either the exhilaration of the Christmas season or something more akin to being swept out to sea. I feel both at once. Every year I try to identify a reason for feeling overwhelmed […]

    Lynette Adams

    December 16, 2018
    christmas, mindfulness
    christmas, mental health, travel, xmas
  • Behind the Instagram #2

    Behind the Instagram #2

    I posted this image on Instagram on the evening of June 24, 2018 while in Newtonhill, Scotland. The next morning I accidentally dated my journal September 25, 2018. With a few edits for clarity, here’s what I wrote: The North Sea, the great expanse of water horizon. On days when the break between water and […]

    Lynette Adams

    November 1, 2018
    behind the instagram, memoir, travel
    digital nomad, digitalnomad, housesitting, petsitting, scotland, summer, travel
  • Behind the Instagram #1

    Behind the Instagram #1

    A little experiment. I generally use social media for sharing the happy stuff. Some things that are too difficult or too personal or too meaningful to share with the world in a two-dimensional picture. Let’s see if I can find the courage to share some of what’s happening in the other dimensions. This photo was taken on the beach in […]

    Lynette Adams

    October 22, 2018
    behind the instagram, memoir, travel
    instagram, travel, Wales
  • Lime Honey and First Day Jitters

    Lime Honey and First Day Jitters

    I wish I could become a travel writer who writes dispatches full of observations and perceptions of the place where she’s landed. Like that scene in Under the Tuscan Sun where she ghostwrites postcards for her tour bus neighbour and waxes so poetically observant that her bus pal decides they’ll never pass to the folks back […]

    Lynette Adams

    August 19, 2018
    travel
    digital nomad, honey, Montenegro, travel
  • What does strong look like to you?

    What does strong look like to you?

    I’m feeling conflicted about posting this one because I don’t want readers to think I’m seeking attention or intervention. I’m really okay. But if you are not comfortable with talk of death or suicide, I encourage you to skip this one.  The first time I remember being called strong, I was ten years old, and […]

    Lynette Adams

    June 9, 2018
    mindfulness
  • Another Kind of Homecoming

    Another Kind of Homecoming

    And I’m off again after being in Newfoundland for just shy of four weeks. Got myself topped up on hugs and live music and greasy takeout and now I’m in Wales, hanging out with a pair of cats in a forest village. It’s called a forest village for real. There’s a bus that goes into Swansea […]

    Lynette Adams

    May 29, 2018
    travel
    canada, digital nomad, housesitting, petsitting, reading, travel, Wales, writing
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About the Blog

Meraki is a travel blog theme designed to document your adventures.

Popular Posts

  • Piz Buin NostalgiaNovember 4, 2022
  • What I do for a LivingNovember 22, 2021
  • A Dubious Guide to Europe’s Beachknitting VenuesDecember 11, 2019

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