{"id":1846,"date":"2026-03-01T16:12:06","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T16:12:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.evefleishman.com\/blog\/?p=1846"},"modified":"2026-04-23T15:12:58","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T15:12:58","slug":"full-circle-on-we-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.evefleishman.com\/blog\/full-circle-on-we-go\/","title":{"rendered":"Full Circle, On We Go!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Don\u2019t you love when things come full circle? This painting has returned to me after 15 years. It was a part of my Peace or Drama<\/em> music and art project<\/a>. So many layers of meaning here – Lori Putnam painted it for my song, \u201cDo You Remember.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Do You Remember by Lori Putnam<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Here\u2019s what Lori wrote about the painting in my Peace or Drama<\/em> book:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Along the southeastern coast of Italy, just at the “spur” of the boot, there is an area referred to as the Gargano. This was a particularly beautiful day with a warm breeze rushing up from the Adriatic Sea. We followed the path of St. Francis of Assisi’s pilgrimage and came upon this big 12th-century farmhouse surrounded by old trees. Perhaps it was the reflected light from the deep red poppies that caused the sky this day to appear more bluish-violet in nature.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Travel is a meditation in and of itself.<\/strong> Our senses come alive and our spirits revive. I recently finished reading a book that my mother gave me, The Dictionary of Lost Words<\/em> by Pip Williams. In the back pages there was a Q & A with the author, and I was struck by how she described her idea of a perfect day:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Waking in the old town, grabbing an espresso, then slowly walking the narrow streets until I come across some subtle reminder that life has been lived in that place for millennia. I would let my fingertips trace the contours of colored tile, or faded fresco or sculptured stone, and imagine a woman, about my age, doing the same a hundred years before, three hundred years before, a thousand years before. I would wonder how our lives are different and how they are the same.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

She, too, is talking about Italy. Not as a resident, but as a traveler. This is how I feel about Portugal, and what I want most to convey when leading people around the southern coast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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View of the Roman bridge in Tavira, Portugal<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I describe my trip as a wellness journey, and sense of place<\/strong> plays the biggest role. I was first inspired to lead tours after reading Traveling with Pomegranates<\/em>, a memoir by southern author Sue Monk Kidd and her daughter Ann Kidd Taylor as they travel Europe together:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Pilgrims are poets who create by taking journeys\u2026..the voyage will lead us to whole new continents of depth and meaning.\u2026[If] we keep going, we might even come full circle, but with a whole new consciousness.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Full circle – I am really feeling this phrase today. A friend and colleague just invited me to offer yoga meditations for her tour of southern Italy in June, which starts a week after my\u00a0May retreat<\/a>\u00a0ends. I am over the moon (another \u201ccircle\u201d\u00a0idiom of note).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Want to join for one or both adventures? Spend a wonderful week with me in southern Portugal (May 23-30) and then meet up again in southern Italy!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Heading back to Portugal soon, where I\u2019ll be leading a free Zoom info session<\/strong> about the Renew, Relax, Retreat<\/a> in May and October. This is your chance to learn more or simply enjoy a virtual tour of southern Portugal. 
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thursday, March 5 at 12 noon eastern\/9 am pacific<\/strong> (half-hour session, plus time for questions afterwards). Email me<\/a> for details and Zoom link.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Don\u2019t you love when things come full circle? This painting has returned to me after 15 years. It was a part of my Peace or Drama music and art project. So many layers of meaning here – Lori Putnam painted it for my song, \u201cDo You Remember.\u201d Here\u2019s what Lori wrote about the painting in my Peace or Drama book: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.evefleishman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.evefleishman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.evefleishman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.evefleishman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.evefleishman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.evefleishman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1846\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.evefleishman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.evefleishman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.evefleishman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}