The Unknown & The Power of Intention

Untethered Jenn – Portugal Journal, Part 2

Portugal continues to show me who I am.

It’s the cliffs overlooking the Atlantic, the cactus, the ocean breeze, and the peace. It’s what happens inside me when I remember what I’m here for.

I almost stayed in tonight.
After working a 12-hour day on an EST timezone schedule, I felt the urge to do nothing—chill. Maybe read. Maybe watch something. The breeze was perfect in the little garden at my place in Salir do Porto. It felt so easy to stay home, and, to be honest, I also felt drawn to Netflix.

But the moment I felt myself slipping into a default mode, I heard it.

You didn’t come here to settle. You came here to expand. This was my Intention calling to me.

I had the days before I pinned a little chapel on Google Maps. Capela de Sant’Ana.
This simple, ancient chapel hangs over the edge of a cliff between the Atlantic and the Bay of São Martinho.

No backstory. I just saw it and knew: I needed to go there.

At 8:15 pm, with sunset at 9:05, I threw on my Birkenstocks and left. I assumed I could drive most of the way, but when I reached the turnoff, the signs said “No Cars.” So I parked, looked at the map, and realized it was 1.2 miles uphill… then shortly after I started walking, I realized it was a giant sand dune. In fact, I was on the other side of the largest sand dune in Western Europe!

And I kept going. I had butterflies in my stomach. I LOVE Butterflies!

No crowd. No noise. Just me and flowers, Cacti, views and the gentle wind.

About halfway up, it hit me—I’m walking alone into the wilderness, at dusk, in another country. There was NO ONE ELSE AROUND.

That’s when I opened ChatGPT and started asking things like:

“Are there dangerous animals in Portugal?” It said, “No, but wild boar can get aggressive.”
😂

I laughed at myself, like somehow AI was gonna rescue me if shit went down.

And I kept going.

I remembered then that the moment you step into the unknown in alignment with your intention, something shifts. You channel your power. You remember who the fuck you are. My ultimate intention is to be the best version of me that I possibly can, and that intention is so powerful that it is hard to ignore.

And just when I thought I’d made it to the top, I realized the chapel was actually down the other side of the hill.

Which meant I had to climb down, take it in, and then hustle back up and over before the sun set.

Worth it

.

The chapel—small, perfect, and still—was perched right on the cliff’s edge. I could not get inside, but oh the view and the sunset! The coastline bent around like a cradle, the waves fierce but grounding. And in that moment, I felt it:

I was so alive.

I didn’t come here to Portugal or anywhere else I will venture to, to replicate my old life in a new setting.

I came here to expand. To remember who the fuck I am.

To live on purpose, even when comfort whispers otherwise.

And what I keep discovering is this:

When intention meets the unknown, expansion is inevitable.

Even when you’re slightly out of breath, a little spooked and low-key Googling if wild boars eat tourists. 😉

If you’re in a season of rediscovery, trust the nudge. Go where it’s a little wild. That’s where the magic lives

.