travel

I am restless.
I always am dreaming of upping and going.
I read travel books endlessly. Not vacationing, I am not looking for comfort or escape. It is more that I understand that when I go totally outside of my own usual place, I seem to learn about myself. I love deeply connecting to other cultures, and seeing what it means about my own.
If I had time and money, I would spend a month once a year living in another place, then I would come home to journal and write and make art about that place until I understood what I had seen and learned.
I used to feel guilty about this longing -- like maybe I was just trying to escape my own daily obligations of family and community.
But now I give myself the benefit of the doubt - I am learning to trust my urges and maybe, just maybe, believe they are there for a reason.
I have been learning about healing the earth through our intention -- and if we go somewhere with an open heart, and try to send healing energy, that is a worthwhile gift to give.
The environment certainly needs our loving intention right now: global warming, greenhouse gasses, the loss of species daily, the loss of indigenous culture and languages -- but instead of being afraid of the earth my children will inherit, I am going to make it my job this last third of my life to explore, document, and embrace the changing world that is now, the parts of the world that are rapidly being lost, and try to make that change for the better instead of just wailing over the destruction I hear about.
I am not a biologist, not a linguist, not an anthropologist, or not even an energy researcher, but I am an artist and a blogger, and I can take that role seriously to understand and nurture all life on earth that I feel the urge to connect to.
and if that culture is in Thailand or Bali, or Scotland or Greece, or even New York City, I guess I just better figure out how to get there and go for it!




"Wandering re-establishes the original harmony which once existed between man and the universe." --Anatole France