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Molly and I are now contributing regular columns on  Style, Substance and Soul. Great website for middle-aged women…we need better terminology than that…hell for all we know we could live to be 150…so this isn’t really middle aged.

http://www.stylesubstancesoul.com

TRAVELING  HOME

posted in guest contributors, matters that matter, substance on Jul 15, 2010 for theme: travel

If I have to be honest, I really don’t like to travel very much. I am a homebody. The idea of planning, packing and heading out the door does not call to me.

Years ago, Kristine and I took part in a creativity workshop. The final exercise was fantastic! We were all given a large blank poster, glue, scissors and mountains of magazines to pour through. Our assignment was to create a visual picture of our Perfect Day. There were no limitations. Money, time, energy, distance — none of those mattered. We were simply to craft a day of perfection. The only rule was that we could not talk to one another or look at each other’s creations. For the next two hours we were all silently immersed in our own imaginations.

Finally, we all gathered together, and took a “trip” around the room, learning about one another’s ideas of the best day ever. It was fascinating. The days, while colored in with different details, went like some version of this: “I’d start my day in Paris. Sitting on a balcony, wrapped in a thick, white robe I would sip espresso and nibble on fresh, warm croissants from the bakery below. After a tour of the Louvre, a private jet would transport me to Italy where I would spend a few hours in Pompeii and lunch in Tuscany with plenty of good red wine. The day would continue with a late afternoon safari in Tanzania, followed by dinner on the veranda overlooking the Serengeti. A dark, handsome masseuse would massage me to sleep to the sounds of the African night.”

Every woman had a different vision. And, every one of those images took them somewhere… away.  Except for me and Kristine.  We never left home. That might be part of the reason we were drawn to one another as friends all those years ago. While different in detail, each of us envisioned a day which allowed us to be home. Our days had time to move slowly, connect with those we loved, and included healthy doses of time to ourselves. The day began and ended right where we were.

Now, no day was better than the other, and I am emphatically not saying that travel isn’t a marvelous experience. It is!  We live on a magnificent planet, inhabited by miraculous human beings.  Adventure and exploration are part of this thing called life.  Every time we take a trip, we have the opportunity to meet new people, consider new ideas, learn to be flexible and brave. We all need to see beyond our own version of the world, challenge our beliefs and perspectives. We must learn to find the common threads that connect us as human beings in the midst of our differences. Travel is a terrific way to do that.

Home — the place we create for ourselves — can allow us a different kind of travel. It can offer travel inward, into our thoughts and emotions, our spirits and our creativity. There are so many demands to leave the house. Work, errands, committees, dates, volunteering, not to mention vacations, holiday trips and family reunions.  All of these can become distractions that take us away not only from our homes, but from ourselves.    The greatest adventure of all is the journey of self-discovery. Not so that we can become self-absorbed, but rather self-aware. That awareness isn’t “out there.” Our trip of a lifetime might just be right here.

writer, Molly Davis