Rose and I are home from Melbourne! We spent nearly 12 hours on the road today and I feel like I could sleep for a month. Sadly I have work in the Barossa tomorrow at noon, which makes me want to chew my own arm off! Still, it will help with the big dent the trip has made in my wallet.

The driving was easier than I expected, we spelled each other in roughly two hour shifts. Our rule was the driver gets to choose the music, volume, and temperature of the car. This worked really well. We also brought a bag of easy to eat snacks, wet wipes and tissues to keep fingers clean, lots of drinks, and plenty of caffeinated options.

The conference was incredible. In fact the whole week was incredible. I have never had so many profound conversations, new relationships, massive paradigm shifts, offers of support, and amazing opportunities in my life. I am so glad I did so much work before I got there to be able to take it all in. My head is still together although I am exhausted. I can recall a lot of the conference and I’ve got pretty extensive notes to help me too. (I plan to do my usual write up on all the talks I went to with links to the speakers for all of you amazing people who couldn’t attend) I feel like I have been eating entire planets and now need down time to rest and digest. The world is a very different place for me than it was a week ago, in so many ways.

How prophetic my dream was, that I still have so much to learn. I have learned so much, and yet that process continues, the more I discover the more horizon I find yet stretching out before me. The world is an amazing place. There is so much hope in my heart. I think I have found new ways forward for myself as an artist, as a peer worker and activist for social change, and as a part of a massive movement on behalf of all of us who suffer and struggle due to dissociation and all the other things so crudely termed ‘mental illness’. I’m not alone with my passion, I have people behind me who care deeply about these things too. And with them behind me, I can suddenly do so many things I could not find the strength for alone. Things are going to change around here!

But first – rest, sleep, dreams, and mulling. First the sitting around in small groups and speaking with people I love and respect, chewing things over, spinning it all into threads we can weave with. I am in love with my life.