Liberty Is Coming: My Bio, My Why, My Flip-Flop

Hello, all! My name is Gwen Nitya and the roles I’ve played that matter to me are: mother, yogini, ayurveda practitioner, life coach, spiritual minister, friend, and lover.

The trail name I choose is Liberty. I turn 47 the week before my AT thru-hike begins, the intent of which is to launch my soul’s declaration that the second half of my life will be ruled by the liberty of my heart, not by a heart held captive by a massive fortress around it.

I seek for my heart to be as free and wild as the land I choose to call home for seven months (yes, I’m taking my time).

I choose the name Liberty for many reasons. Some I will hold close, but these I will share, because it’s true, I’d like to be seen by you. I choose:

–Freedom from my past.

–Freedom from all my stories of what was and what is.

–Freedom from a life of struggle.

–Freedom from other people’s agendas for me

–Freedom from life distractions that have kept me from my soul healing.

–Freedom from a society I no longer choose to participate with (at least until I can figure out how to participate without selling my soul).

–And finally, freedom from all the ways I and others cause harm to ourselves, body, mind, and soul.

So yeah, I choose Liberty from a life I no longer want, to free my heart to rest and renew, to create and play, to meditate and muse. And to just simply allow myself to be within real life.

Real life is raw, unfiltered, unconfined – wild.  Real life is innocent, miraculous, awe-inspiring – beautiful. Real life is spontaneity and rhythm, pool and flow, synergy and roots – balance. Life is not these neat, organized, and structured duplicate models of expectations (both inner and outer), like most towns across America, with their own different Truman Shows unfolding in each.

Real life is and could be so much more. And one day I’ll find that “more” my heart is searching for.

Meanwhile, I will hike and I will celebrate my own soul for being just as wild-at-heart as real life.

All my love,

Liberty (I’m claiming it now!)

P.S and BTW, I hit the trail mid-April at Harpers Ferry, NOBO, doing the thru-hike flip-flop.