“Nothing behind me, everything ahead of me, as is ever so on the road.” ~ Jack Kerouac, On the Road
When we travel, we exit ourselves. We move outside of our circle, our home, and our comfort zone toward the great unknown. This is exciting, adventurous, and scary. What will happen? Who will we meet? What if nothing goes as planned?
To travel is a gift of perspective. It’s why so many of us hit the road at some point, if we’re lucky ~ to see outside ourselves. We have the innate sense that there is something out there ~ something to see, to taste, and to learn. We know that when we return we will never be the same.
When we are moving through the world, our eyes are open and our mouths are shut. The sewer drain looks different, interesting. The sounds the birds make are not quite familiar. We notice, we observe. In this way, this movement brings us to stillness. The stillness is our insides settling in to the unfamiliar and learning to sit with ourselves through the changing environment. The chatter of our ego and our constant need to “know, know, know” everything loses its breath when we sit gaping at the wide wonder that is this world. Suddenly, Maybe it’s OK to not know. Maybe asking is more important. And just like that, the tight knot of our guarded self loosens and we start to unravel a bit.
If you have ever experienced that awe, it is still alive within you. To bring it to light again you needn’t go far. Walk out your backdoor. Open your eyes as if you were standing in a faraway land. Listen. Observe. Smell. What is this place… this wonderful, wondrous place that’s filling my senses? How can it be? I am in it and of it. I am a wonder. I move through this, step-by-step, but what do I know? I loosen the knot holding it all together and just hold still in this moment of light.
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