Saturday, June 20, 2009

Travel - A State of Mind

Whether we travel across the seas, across the country, or across the street - we are all travelers of this world. Some of us take bigger steps and venture further than others.

Travel is also a state of mind. It is the spirit of exploration. The taste of wonder. The sense of what is new and what is old, what is the same and what is different. The first time I had the opportunity to travel to Europe I was silenced, humbled, soul stopped - for it was then I truly realized how young our country is and how much more we have to learn from each other.

Travel teaches. It reaches. It stretches. It answers questions. It grabs our curiosity. Once, while standing upon the ridge of a crater in Hawaii, awaiting the rising of the sun on that particular day, I was reminded how small we are as humans in this vast, dependable land. It took almost an hour for the sun to rise that day. My inner spirit reminded me of how dependable our earth is, how consistent our creator is, how humbled we should be. It reminded me that we can truly count on the things that are important in this world without doubt and should we be worried about something, maybe our focus is on the wrong thing.

Travel exposes us to our brothers and sisters in our local town, called Earth. Several years ago I had the good fortune to attend an educational conference half way around the world. There students less than ten years of age interacted with teenagers, college students, and senior citizens from four contintents with different native tongues. Yet, everyone interacted respectively, sharing joys, concerns for the future, the meaning of friendship and leadership, and ideas on how to plan for our future world. I learned that the more we travel, the more we discover how much more alike we are from each other than different.

It is wonderful that we all have the opportunity to travel, for to me we can travel through books, through the virtual wide world, or in person. You never know what the future will bring. I once dreamed of sailing the Greek Islands. I knew this was so far out of my reach it was impossible. Yet, a little over ten years later that is exactly what I was doing.

You just never know what life will bring!

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