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Talking Location With… author and traveller Kayce Stevens Hughlett. Travel and Writing

23rd February 2019

#TalkingLocationWith….. by Kayce Stevens Hughlett, author of SoulStroller.

“The places along the way are the containers, the cathedrals and deserts and cinderblock buildings. They hold moments in time. Travel opens up space in a different way than living in the quotidian. SoulStrolling invites us to take steps wisely and jump in wholeheartedly.” (excerpt from SoulStroller: experiencing the weight, whispers, and wings of the world)

Only in the practices of writing and travel—what I call “soulstrolling”—do I become immersed in the luscious permission to be fully where I am and find myself absorbed into reflective reverie. When tackling how trips influence my writing, I chuckle and pause to pinch myself. Has this really become my life? It’s difficult for me to decide which is more personally thrilling—the idea that I’ve become a person with something of value to say about travel or the reality that I’m writing stories at all. You see, both lifestyles showed up for me long after a reasonable person might think big changes were possible. I’m not one of those authors who’s been penning stories since she was three years old, and I applied for my first passport when I was forty-five. Simply put, travel and writing were both catalysts of change in my life and I’m here to say it’s never too late to begin experiencing your own story in a more fulfilling way.

Kayce Stevens Hughlett

Travel is the place where past meets present and here greets there in the most divine way. With the flick of a pen, I can be transported to Southern France where I ride atop a white stallion on the Camargue, feel the thick air, and touch the raspberry sorbet sky pockmarked with giant mosquitoes. It is a heavenly ride through time where I hear flamingoes call, Ça va! Ça va! in the golden marshes and a topaz-eyed owl soars through the setting sun outside the town of Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer.

I am here now, but where is here? I ask that question often. In the past two decades, I have hopped on airplanes and journeyed around the globe, touching down on golden-leaved trails in Ireland and sitting in a Balinese rice field as the sun rose over Mt. Agung. I have danced with statues in Paris, making friends with a man who passes through walls and tasted pomegranate seeds from a bronze goddess who breaks them open at the foot of the Eiffel Tour.

Literal miles have been logged in my passport—France, Ireland, Egypt, Italy, Bali, and more. I’ve journeyed far from my early beginnings—the one that started in Oklahoma clay and oil derrick dotted fields. These are my fields of dreams. The dreams that call me to follow my pen and fly through the French countryside. To witness Uzès in the Occitaine region with her multi-colored hot air balloons and drive through Normandy with her miles of rolling fields and war-remembered beaches.

The pages of our minds, and those in books, take us on otherworldly journeys. A camel named Bella taught me about rhythm in the Sinai desert. She embellished the lessons I first learned on the streets of Paris when I packed my bags during a leap year and journeyed alone where I discovered that I am never alone. To travel, whether on pages or in planes, is to be where you are—fully, emphatically, wholly.

When I began writing my latest book, SoulStroller: experiencing the weight, whispers, & wings of the world, I thought the overarching story was about my early travels and how I’d stumbled into them. I was going to share with readers the places I’d traveled and introduce them to the world through my eyes. Then I began to notice there was no way my inner journey was going to stay out of the narrative.

My story of writing about journeys became its own adventure. It was fascinating to notice which stories rose in my awareness and asked to be included in the book. Paris was a no-brainer because it was my first solo trip and the city I’ve returned to more than any other place in the world. It’s also the most urban venue that I chose to include.

Being a traveler versus a tourist is my preferred mode of tripping. For me that means sinking into the local lifestyle and falling off the beaten path, opening unexplored doorways and inviting serendipity to come along for the ride. SoulStrollers are willing to take risks and forge personal pathways. We understand that getting lost and sometimes going it alone will be part of the journey. This is how we will be found. Following my wanderlust, I’ve discovered that I’m a fan of less-traveled sites, so SoulStroller includes adventures to small villages like Glendalough Ireland, Ubud Indonesia, and a campsite underneath the stars of the Sinai desert.

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The cobblestones of Paris hold secrets not found in my home town. Bali’s air is infused with countless blessings like the flowered offerings that line the pathways, homes, and temples there. It is impossible to describe the ineffable. This is why I tell a dear friend who recently acquired her first passport (even though we share a birth year), “Go someplace ancient. Pick a spot. Use your passport.” I invite you to do the same. Take your soul for a stroll! (Oh… and perhaps read SoulStroller along the way.)

Kayce Stevens Hughlett is a tender, a healer, and an artist of being alive who believes in everyday magic and that complex issues often call for simple practices and author of “SoulStroller.” She holds a Masters in Counseling Psychology from The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology and she is a Certified Martha Beck Life Coach. Her novel, “Blue,” won the Chanti Award for best women’s fiction in 2015. Kayce began her working life as an accountant for a multi-national firm and transitioned to the healing arts when life’s harsh circumstances sent her searching for answers on a less-linear path. She is the co-creator of SoulStrolling® ~ a movement for mindfulness in motion. Raised in the heartland of Oklahoma, she now resides in Seattle, Washington with her family and muse, Aslan the Cat. Learn more via her website connect with her via Twitter 

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