Eli, “Do you agree that travel is THE BEST teacher?”
There is something about the movement.
There is something about feeling small, about being open and vulnerable. Travel requires a special surrender. To allow being held. Some resist this and find travel to be terribly uncomfortable. Others create a buffer by heavy planning. Guided tours, all-inclusive resorts. And full shuttle service.
I am sick. I have travel sickness. At this point, I’m not sure there is a cure, or how living with the sickness will affect my life long term.
See it’s not that I especially like seeing things. Or that I am trying to find something, it’s that I find a special kind of openness. I’m calling it hyper-open. The best way to perhaps describe it is driving in Thailand.
At home in the USA, the road is designated mainly for cars. And the road is for, well, driving. But this is not the case in Thailand. In Thailand, the road is for getting places and, for sleeping and hanging out if you are a dog.
Whether a car, a dog, a person, or a scooter you are on the road. So driving here requires a special kind of awareness, Hyper-open. All my receptors are open. Like playing a video game. A dog or person or frog could pop out of nowhere. I find I drive out of focus. I use all my peripherals, unfocused as wide as I can see. Hyper-open.
Getting food, or directions, or shampoo, and even shopping for a simple doormat demands being hyper-open. Drawing in any resource available, and all the while surrender. Grace.
Is travel THE BEST teacher? For me travel is a reminder to be open, to surrender, it’s a new kind of drug to feed my sickness.
I crave being hyper-open. The inputs of a new place: rapid download of cultural nuances, consumption of new foods, and the soul connection that persists in every place – a reminder that we are one.
I am sick for expansion. I crave life wide open.