Paolina Milana - author and writer for hire

Everybody has a story. I've been telling people's stories for decades. I'm an award-winning writer and published author with journalistic roots and a marketing background. Let me help you write or ghostwrite the story of your life. Also available for corporate brand storytelling.

Embracing the Power of Now

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So much was learned during my journey back to Africa. The first time I visited in August/September 2015, I felt myself dissolving into the land. This most recent trip in May/June 2017, I felt myself expanding into the sky.lion kill africa

I’m not sure I can explain the connection I feel with everything when in Africa. Maybe it’s because the animals are so honest. The focus is on the now. Even the experience of a kill is not dwelled on long after. It is part of the cycle of life. The predator has only one motive in its killing: food needed to sustain its life. The prey does not feel it did something to call upon itself an attack. And those left behind may mourn their fallen mate, however, they do not dwell in the past.

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Wordlessness and Oneness

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I embarked on a journey as one of 12 women, each of us strangers, to South Africa’s Londolozi Reserve. We were with life coach and author Martha Beck, part of her African STAR program. During our workshops, we’d set off every morning before the sun rose to explore the unknown, track the animals, drop into wordlessness and become one with the universe. When we’d return to camp, Martha would ask us to do a “three-minute capture”: to write down whatever thoughts came to mind of what we had just experienced. Here below are a few of mine. They most likely will mean nothing to anybody but me. And I love that.

africa tree

Caregiver to all from age ten. Raised by a schizophrenic mom, then to raise a schizophrenic sister. Tried to control it all to my own neglect. Failed in so many ways. Work became my identity. I ignored the work that was – for me – natural and more play. I always worried and thought of the next paycheck, in preparation for the next shoe that would fall. Now I am finding myself adrift alone. No anchor. Both good and bad.

 

The sounds: the gnarls of the lions and their breathing and sparring. The sounds: the gurgling of the elephants slurping water, splashing it over themselves, and I think toward us to ward us off. The sounds: of silence with a stealthy leopard and the padded feet of elephant that you just don’t hear other than crackling twigs beneath. The sounds: of interference and noise, of people chattering, even whispering, trying to overpower the peace, along with the voices in my head.

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In One Year, Nothing Will Be The Same

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One year ago tomorrow, my husband and I boarded a plane to Africa. It was a life-long dream of mine to celebrate my 50th birthday, as well aserengeti-hot-air-balloon-migration-2s my book being published, and, well, my entire existence thus far by spending nearly the entire month of September exploring as much of Africa as possible. Ever since my father had told me that as he was growing up in Sicily that he always considered Africa to be “il giardino” (likening Africa to the Garden of Eden), something inside of me had decided back then that one day, I would experience this birthplace of all life first-hand and in as much of an indulgent way as I could afford.

We started our journey in Cape Town, South Africa and criss-crossed our way through Zimbabwe, taking in Victoria Falls, up to Botswana where we got up close and personal with Elephants, and ended our stay in the Serengeti. We stayed in some of the most luxurious of lodges as well as in makeshift temporary tents with wildlife prowling just outside our canvas doors.

serengeti-rocks

Rising before the sun itself, heading out in open-air jeeps, witnessing animals of every species coexisting in harmony, and just sitting, just being in the moment, unhooked, unplugged, and at such peace…it has stayed with me and has changed me. This change being that for the better.

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Out of Africa: Bloom Where You Are Planted

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Africa and the dream trip of a lifetime: that’s where I’ve been for the better part of the month of September. No Internet, no TV, no work, no bills, no deadlines, no drama, no cares and no need to play caregiver to anybody else but me. Only the here and now, and the sweet, sweet peace that comes with living in the moment. Africa proved to be everything I dreamed it would be – only bigger; it also offered up so much more of what I could never have imagined, including giving me an entirely new perspective on “blooming where you’re planted.”

bloom where you are planted collage

Vacations always end too soon, and upon returning to home and to job, inevitably, the shock of this real life sinks in, sometimes threatening to sink me in. It happens after every holiday taken. I’m sure other travelers feel it too; I know I’m not alone. For the first several days after being out of Africa, I couldn’t help but feel it – that deep sadness, that longing, that feeling that, perhaps, I had left the better part of me somewhere over there.

And then I decided to take an early morning walk, over here. [Read more…]