Wanderlust

I’m reading a book by Elizabeth Gilbert called “Eat, Pray, Love.”  It’s a fascinating story about the author’s year-long travels to Italy, India, and Bali.  Gilbert writes about her journey with honesty, intelligence, and humor.  She is a world traveler, and she specifically designed the year of travel and the destinations with distinct purpose in mind.  Read about this book and the author at www.elizabethgilbert.com

Reading “Eat, Pray, Love” has been a thought provoking experience for me.  As all well-written books do, it provides a perspective about travel and other cultures that I didn’t have before reading it.  The author’s voice is clear and her descriptive ability allows the reader to feel as if you’re there with her.  She is a courageous traveler; unafraid of traveling alone and thus open to diverse experiences described eloquently in the book.

Elizabeth Gilbert, in response to an interview question about her book, refers to her belief in “The Physics of the Quest”,  a force of nature governed by laws as real as the laws of gravity or momentum.  And the rule of Quest Physics maybe goes like this: “If you are brave enough to leave behind everything familiar and comforting (which can be anything from your house to your bitter old resentments) and set out on a truth-seeking journey (either externally or internally), and if you are truly willing to regard everything that happens to you on that journey as a clue, and if you accept everyone you meet along the way as a teacher, and if you are prepared – most of all – to face (and forgive) some very difficult realities about yourself….then truth will not be withheld from you.”

We can’t all be fortunate enough to have a publisher finance a trip like the one Elizabeth Gilbert took.  But we can be inspired by what she did, and find a way to make travel happen in our own lives.  Living in another country for 4 months at a time would allow us to understand other cultures in a way not possible by simply studying through traditional methods.  If we’re committed to being open to opportunities as they present themselves, and overcome our fear of leaving our relative safety nets behind, our lives can be enriched exponentially by traveling to other places, even within our own country.

Imagine what we miss by staying within the boundaries of our own little world?  Imagine the people we don’t meet, the food we don’t taste, the smells we can’t enjoy, the architecture we fail to see, the photos untaken?  Imagine opening our minds to the adventure of life by moving around within it, lifting the flaps and looking underneath to find the treasures that await us.

So…wanderlust.  I’ve always loved that word.  Do you ever feel like simply leaving where you are to go somewhere else?  What stops you?  Responsibility.  Money.  Fear. Procrastination.  All valid reasons not to jump on an airplane.  But just think…others do it all the time.  Why not you?  What is the upside and what is the downside?

I’m inspired.  Where shall we go next?

Coach Charrise