Interview by: Prime Sarmiento

 

 

       Photographer, author and teacher Mary Bartnikowski took a two month career break from her thriving photography business in Palo Alto in 2005 to visit her then 18 -year old son who was backpacking in Nepal. Mary, however, never thought that brief career break will lead to a lifelong spiritual journey. She will then author a book  – Kitten Heels in Kathmandu, Adventures of a Female Vagabond* – chronicling her journeys.

   Below is an excerpt from Mary's interview with The Gypsygals:

   Q: How did your career break help you in treading a spiritual path?

    A:  Nepal was my first third world country. And I was smitten. Besides being the most fun I’d ever had in my life I got to be with my son as a grown-up even though he was only 18 years old and learn who he was at a new level.

     I also taught photography to the Nepal Youth Foundation’s staff as I was invited to come in and show the staff how to take better photographs of the children. I loved it! My soul opened up and it felt wonderful to not think about money and what they would give me for what I was doing.

      I just loved being there and getting to know these lovely people who create homes for neglected children saving them from destitution. I was hooked. It spoke to the deepest part of me and I kept going.

      I made a New Year’s resolution to leave the U.S. every year by Jan 1 – to immerse myself in other cultures and learn how to get off the treadmill and experience life: traveling and teaching.

      Every year I was taking 6 to 10 months journeys worldwide. After three years of doing that, I knew: this is my life.  And I didn’t need to go to the ATM anymore, I was earning all my expenses teaching photography and yoga and shooting. I didn’t want to come home – my home is the world. So I sold everything I owned and didn’t look back.

 

Q: Where did you go in your own spiritual journey? What did you do there?

A:  I landed in Nepal for the first time in 2005. I saw my son waiting for me and how the light was more luminescent on the rooftop of the world. I felt like never going back to the U.S. – it was clear to me that I was missing the depth of truly living my life rather than letting it live me.

   I used to spend $500 a day on vacations – eating out at pricey restaurants, drinking $15 glasses of red wine. I was supposed to be happy but I needed more than that.

   Then I opened up and just let the journey take me. My son and I took busses all over Nepal seeing temples, sacred places, hiking in the stratospheric Himalayas, he even got me on the roof top of a bus where the locals sit when its too crowded inside. We saw the sun rise on the Himalayas on New Year’s Day in Nagarkot.

   Then we went to India and on the Ganges River I felt more peace than I’d ever felt in my life in Rishikesh, a holy village on the river where saints and sages have walked for centuries. This was more fun than drinking and dining out at home. This was sacred. And we went to puja every night – a sacred ceremony in Hinduism but all are invited.

  After that we took the train to Dharamsala where the Dalai Lama lives. Miraculously it turned out that he was going to speak in public and we would get to see him!

   This was the second time in three months I got to see him – the first time was at Stanford university and he held my hand and looked into my eyes and soul. Talk about a spiritual journey – I felt like I would never wash my hand again. That was really the beginning. I felt joy and total forgiveness in his presence.

 

Q: What are the rewards of career break?

   It was nothing less than a total re-haul of my soul and heart.

   It was a coming together of my life – a blossoming of my life – a way to grow and be happy that I had never thought of before. The reward of taking time off from work and your life is to give your self the fresh air to find out who you are apart from your job.

   Maybe it isn’t what you want to do anymore. 

   It’s a time to find out what you love. A time for reflection, teaching, sharing, and being. Rather than striving and achieving.

 

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Mary is one of the career breakers that I’m featuring in my upcoming guide on how to have a career sabbatical in order to travel.  If you’re interested in this, please take this brief survey  and help me help you fulfill your dream trip. 

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Thank you an enjoy your journeys!

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Resources: 

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