All One!
For the last decade, no matter what’s happening in the world or in our lives, Kim and I have gotten to travel for six weeks each summer. We guide trips, we scout for new trips, we take vacation, we enjoy each other’s company. Alas, because 2020, our plans were put on indefinite hiatus. (I wonder if even Superman would be able to stop 2020 at this point...)
Despite all of the tension and uncertainty, Kim and I were confident that we could safely and responsibly take a road trip to satiate our traveler’s hunger. Our first big stop was Yellowstone. Though there have been far fewer visitors to Yellowstone this year, there were still many people in the park. We knew that Old Faithful would be busy, and we knew we didn’t want to miss it.
We arrived about an hour before the geyser was scheduled to erupt. Not too far from the geyser but not too close to the crowds, we staked out our spot. As we waited, people filled in around us. I moved around imagining the eruption, framing photographs. While looking through my camera the surrounding mountains and trees faded away, and I noticed something remarkable. Families were picnicking, strangers were kibitzing, children were playing. At the center of it all was the gushing heart of the world’s first national park, this enduring symbol of America and its greatness.
Many people were wearing masks, many weren’t. There were MAGA hats and there were Life is Good hats. There were Confederate flag t-shirts and there were Love Is Love t-shirts. But under each of those hats, those t-shirts, stood human beings. Wonderful, kind, good human beings who simply want to be happy and safe and who want the same for their loved ones. Human beings who traveled from all over the world to witness this geologic phenomenon.
Look anywhere in the world, Saint Peter’s Square, Rome, Dubrovnik, Croatia, Temple Bar, Dublin, and you can see this. Travel brings out the very best in us. It breaks down barriers. The veneers that we so carefully polish in our daily lives, they dull and disappear. We simply...forget about them.
We tap into, quite naturally, beginner’s mind. To immerse ourselves in another culture or in nature is to effortlessly slip into a state of presence. We become perfectly at peace with ourselves, our peers, our surroundings. We easily access unseen sides of ourselves.
At Alchemy Adventures, we call this magic. It’s the experience that every traveler, inveterate or novice, can attest to being what draws them, time and again, away from home. Draws them back to the long, uncomfortable flights and the jet lag. It’s what softens the discomfort of walking miles and miles through a city when we stumble on that hidden gem. It’s the making of a life-long friend in Montepulciano, Tuscany or La Fortuna, Costa Rica. It’s what, if you look deeply enough, shows us that, regardless of who we are and where we come from, we are all one.
This magic, this synchronicity, this is what lures us away from home. Travel is an undeniable avenue for accessing beginner’s mind and the true essence of who we are. Travel gives us the opportunity to reflect on where we are in our lives, where we are going, and all of the possibilities of where we could go. Travel is magic!
