Fly with Lily

I finally stepped off the plane and onto Icelandic soil.

The first thing I did wasn't chase the Northern Lights or take photos for the internet. It was to fight through freezing winds, jump on a shuttle bus, and go find a friend I'd known for over twenty years.

This episode: the Blue Lagoon. Milky blue water, minus-eight-degree winds, volcanic mud masks, and singing in the sauna. About travel, about friendship, and about the dreams that become whole not because you finally arrived — but because someone you love arrived with you.

Come soak with me.

My website: flywithlily.com

When the plane landed, I looked out the window —

That wasn't the Earth I knew.

Black volcanic rock. White snow. A horizon that stretched further than imagination.

In this episode, I take you onto the flight from London to Reykjavík — and into the moment I'd been waiting six years for. Landing in Iceland for the first time felt less like arriving at a place and more like waking up inside a dream you forgot you were having.

Come fly with me.

My Website is Flywithlily.com 

A single taxi ride cost me the price of a plane ticket.

That morning, the London Underground was on strike, and I almost missed my flight to Reykjavík. I flagged down a black cab and watched the meter climb to £90 — nearly the cost of the flight itself.

In this episode: is travel really more dangerous, more romantic than people think? Or does it just magnify the things we usually avoid at home? And how one expensive, rushed morning turned into a habit I still carry today.

Join me back in that cab.

My website: flywithlily.com

Why Did I Go to Iceland? | Iceland Series Part 2 | EP. 1888

“Sometimes what changes your life isn’t a grand decision — it’s a single moment when you choose to trust yourself.”

— Lily

Have you ever had that feeling?

You’ve waited for something for years…

And then one day, it suddenly appears right in front of you—

So quickly that you barely have time to react.

That’s exactly what happened to me in 2019.

In this episode, I share the story of why I finally decided to go to Iceland—a dream that had quietly lived in my heart for years, and how one unexpected opportunity changed everything.

If you enjoy today’s story, don’t forget to subscribe!

In the next episode, I’ll take you aboard the flight to Reykjavík and tell you what I saw through the airplane window—one moment I’ll never forget.

I’m Lily. Join my email community at FlywithLily.com, or become part of my women’s morning club. I’ll see you in the next episode!

I've traveled to over 40 countries. My favorite has always been Iceland.

It started with a movie — and one quiet promise to myself. That promise brought me back four times, for over a hundred nights: through all four seasons, two love stories, and more versions of myself than I can count.

Follow Lily: Iceland is a bilingual story series about travel, love, loss, healing, and becoming. Not a travel guide. A collection of moments that made me who I am.

Follow along. The journey begins now.

My website: flywithlily.com

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do."— Mark Twain

Today I want to share a story that changed my life.

It begins in the spring of 2005. I was twenty-two years old. It was the second year after my mother had passed away.

I had just returned to university to finish my degree. I had completed one semester, made it through a winter break. And if I had to describe how I felt at the time, I would say: I was lost — but I desperately wanted to change.

My website: flywithlily.com

The Most Valuable Things My Parents Taught Me — Presence, Integrity, and Courage

My mother passed away when I was twenty.

She left in her sleep — no warning, no goodbye. And it wasn't until I was holding her worn, misshapen "I love you" pillow that I finally understood how much time I had wasted in coldness and indifference, when I could have simply loved her.

My father was the person I admired most in the world. Flawed, impulsive, clumsy with feelings — but deeply loyal, fiercely principled, and the first person who taught me: no step in life is wasted. Every one counts.

In this episode, Lily shares what two very different parents gave her — one taught her to cherish the present, the other gave her the courage to keep going. And together, those two lessons became the foundation of a life she truly loves.

� Lark Lab 2.0 | A women-only online community. Every morning, together. 
flywithlily.com/6am

I Never Understood How They Loved Each Other — My Parents, My Family, and What They Left Me

My father was a successful lawyer — generous, loyal, admired by everyone who knew him. But at home, he was a different person.

My mother was a quiet, elusive free spirit. She appeared and disappeared. I never quite knew what she was thinking.

In this episode, Lily shares a story she rarely tells — about a family full of love and full of chaos, about a little girl who learned independence too early, and about the fear that lived in her body for years without a name.

But this episode isn't only about pain.

It's about gratitude. About awareness. About how to carry everything your family gave you — the wounds and the wisdom — and still choose to love differently.

� Lark Lab 2.0 | A women-only online community. Every morning, together.
flywithlily.com/6am

My father seasoned everything with just one thing: salt.

And it was the best food I've ever tasted in my life.

This episode isn't really about a recipe. It's about the memories wrapped around two simple dishes — the pot of cabbage he accidentally burned, the meal he tried to recreate in Shanghai that never quite tasted the same, and the last afternoon he sat in the kitchen, slowly cutting vegetables for me, even though his legs could barely carry him.

Some flavors only happen once in a lifetime.

� Lark Lab 2.0 | A women-only online community. Every morning, together.
flywithlily.com/6am

如果有人问你，用五个词形容自己，你会怎么回答？

这个问题，曾让我沉默很久。

我是 Lily，一个走过四十多个国家、在旅行中重新认识自己的人。这个播客，是我和你说真心话的地方——关于乐观、冒险、开阔心胸，还有那个不太敢承认的自信不足。

每一集，我会分享一个真实的故事：在堪萨斯除夕夜弄丢手机却笑了出来、在危地马拉的船上误解了一位妈妈、在萨帕的深夜和陌生人聊出像家的感觉。

这些故事告诉我——

真正的成长，不是变得更完美，而是越来越敢做自己。

"Imperfect, but authentic. Still growing, but no longer afraid to be myself."

“不完美，但真实。还在成长，但已经不再害怕做自己。”

如果你也在路上摸索、也想认识更真实的自己，欢迎来这里坐坐。

� 订阅灵魂信件，每周收到我最真实的思考

️ 加入云雀实验室，和真诚的灵魂一起成长

� 探索迷你退休体验

� [email protected] · � flywithlily.com