Rolling Solo Might be the Most Generous Gift You Give Yourself

Postcards from Kenya #2

My new soul sister, Kate Harlow, photobombing my photoshoot. Photo by the fabulous Tarja Ruuska

A woman who is free to roam the world alone is unstoppable.

~Rita Mae Brown

As I wrap up my time in Kenya, I’m sending this as a last postcard from this magical place. Those of you who have been reading my work know I often roll solo. This is by way of circumstance (I am very single right now) and by choice (I’m not afraid, have a penchant for exploring the world, and have long lived by the mantra If it’s not a Fuck yes!, it’s a No. (This also includes relationships—hence the very single part.))

Not long before departing for Africa, a women I had only recently met leaned into me as we sat around a campfire and told me in a quiet, concerned way that she was intuiting I’d be lonely and wonder why I came. Another friend who knows me well later laughed about it, saying That’s not at all what I know about you. I’ve been thinking about this since

April Isaacs

posted a sweet missive about how, at times, she forgets that for most it’s an anomaly to see a woman doing things on her own, and spoke of how, when she’s rolling solo around the world or in her van, people accuse her of being lonely, projecting their own loneliness onto her.

The truth of my experience? My heart could not be more full on this solo adventure—a journey that has stretched into a nearly three-month affair filled with lots of new friends, living and learning in a new culture and ecosystem, a love affair with charismatic megafauna, copious time for walking, sitting in the sun, listening to the birds and breathing in the flowers, writing, painting, connecting. (And, yes, there has been the occasional dead of night work video call (yup, basically horrible—but a woman’s gotta to pay her bills)). The last few weeks has been enriched by the return of several resident artists and friends of Olepangi Farm, and by the most fabulous, down-to-earth, unconventional, flower-enriched wedding of

Elizabeth Loker

(the Queen of Olepangi) and her partner Kier Head this past weekend.

So many of the people I’ve met along the way, like me, have chosen unscripted paths. They are world travelers, artists, makers, doers. Conservationists, entrepreneurs, writers. I could not feel more at home in this community, and my entire experience here in Kenya has been deeply rewarding, expansive, and not a bit scary. To top it all off, I sold three of my paintings this past weekend—sending them off to Sri Lanka and Formentera (an island just south of Ibizi—and gifted another to Elizabeth and Kier. [I told each of the new owners of my art that I just might need to come see them in-situ.] Furthering the sense of flow set in motion by following my heart to this incredible place, the sale of these paintings has significantly off-set the costs of my stay here.

And the woman from the campfire? It seems she was projecting her own anxieties onto me. Instead, rolling solo has been one of the most generous gifts I could have given myself.

Days in Laikipia

And, with that, I’m beginning my long journey home. To embracing the flow.

xo Wendy