...go with all your heart." - attributed to Confucius
What countries do you want to visit?
(missed this prompt before, my mind on other things)
At the end of high school, several friends suddenly went to Europe as though it was the most natural thing to do. Until then, I'd only known a few people who went out of country, usually to visit family, though sometimes their parents would be gone on trips for months at a time.
But even if I stretched my mind very far, there were only two places I could tangibly imagine myself visiting then, possibly because they were most vivid in books, movies, and ancestry tales: France and Ireland.
At the very least, I thought these would be my first trips abroad one day.
Neither Canada nor Mexico seemed like a foreign country btw, so let's not count those for now. Back then, no one was scrambling for passports to get to either, which was probably my criteria for what counted. 🙂
To this day I haven't been to Europe, except for Amsterdam, and there isn't much that pulls me to go outside of the idea of visiting museums. Even in Amsterdam the highlight was the Van Gogh Museum and specifically, an exhibit about Van Gogh and Japan. What brought me there, though, was a retreat-ish gathering with 'spiritual friends'.
The thing that consistently compels me enough to disrupt my usual focus on day-to-day path stuff, is spending time with beloved people. Although we had sessions and a little structure during that trip and others, mostly we were just somewhere together in a certain way of being. It was deeply nourishing time, battery charging time.
These were distinctly non tourist trips, not family vacations, but rather specifically set aside to be out-of-context and to dislodge familiar sensibilities... who one is, where one comes from, etc. We created thin places together.
These days, given the means, I'd like to visit Italy, and specifically Venice before it's gone. So many visitors also exacerbates the situation. Still, it's a trip I think my son would appreciate especially, so given opportunity and means, I'd go.
Also, I'd like to return to Japan, to linger longer than I have before, next time in Spring or Fall. I always bracket the notion of reincarnation, but the way I felt in Japan makes a compelling case, a belonging it's hard to describe and am embarrassed trying to, knowing it can sound self-indulgent. It could be that the Japanese skill and art of making place, transmits this sensibility down through time, preserved in rituals and aesthetics raised to importance. Either way, there's a moss garden I promised to come back and spend time with. 🙂
My favorite of the LNT stickers
India might have a similar feeling, if going there for yoga and/or retreat, but the heat dissuades. 🙂 So many places I'd love to go if the conditions were just right, you know.
That's quite different from what I'm talking about here.
I'm reminded of two little girls playing in an area of Central Park where there's small a cove of stairs surrounded by greenery, like something out of story book. I was sitting nearby scribbling little notes and observations when I heard one of them say, exasperated with the other. "Do you want to go on an adventure or not?!"
Aside from Italy and Japan, I love to imagine visiting lots of other places, like Thailand or Vietnam, but am in a receptive stance. Where would life like me to visit? Where am I being drawn, invited, called? Same goes for visiting places in the US! I ask myself a lot, how I can live the thin place sensibility more every day, wherever I am? How can I let daily life be strange and wonderful without trying to control and/or own it? Can I relinquish my hold, more and more?
I don't know, but I believe in the endeavor.
A dear friend once made her New Year's Resolution traveling lightly, and even in just that phrase, made a strong impact on my thoughts about this. I'm conscious of the way so many places are overrun by the way people travel, snapping photos for IG, latching onto identity and status. I feel especially aware of it when in a popular spot, as I'm not immune to wanting to seal myself into a place this way too. I once snapped a photo of a bazillion phones in front of a Van Gogh at the Met.
When my son visited Chicago a few years ago I asked him to take photos, so he sent me images of crosswalks and the top of his head, things like that. I was sooooo irritated, but delighted too, because he was letting his trip be what it was, time with friends. Captures from the museum did come back, reminding me of Susan's Yes/and.
Most things in life don't have to be either/or. Like Van Gogh I've revisited this questions a few times now, so the post has recurring themes, but hopefully a few new angles too. ❤ Thanks for reading.
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