The Travel Bridge
22 Sep 2009 ~ Categories: eco-living • wellness
The theme of this blog is Building a Bridge to Our Better Side, and one of my favorite ways to do that in my own life is to travel. Visiting other places and exploring unfamiliar terrain is an opportunity to simultaneously shrink our world and expand our perceptive horizons.
I try to get away whenever I can. Extensive travel has always been a part of my life. From the time we were infants, my folks used to strap me and my brother Garrett into backpacks and set off on adventures. By now traveling is in my blood.
My parents now live on and work their own ranch-style organic farm in New Mexico, and I recently returned from a visit down there, where I took part in the annual “crush”.
The crush is a time to gather with family and friends, work the land, and help harvest the year’s crop of grapes for the making of traditional balsamic vinegar – like they’ve done for some 1000+ years in Modena, Italy. Years back, my family ventured to those parts to explore, and we brought back this beautiful tradition.
This year I went straight from the isolated desert of New Mexico to the frenetic pace of New York City. The transition was humbling. But having the flexibility to land on my feet and acclimate to the present moment, wherever I am, is an empowering feeling.
From my earliest memories of traveling in Mexico as a toddler with my parents, travel has always taught me loads about exploration and self-sufficiency, exposed me to the exotic variety of the world, and showed me that we can alter our reality quite easily albeit uncomfortable in moments. Sometimes a location change can speed up our self-growth in a way that’s, dare I say it, enlightening.
And every time I escape from the so-called bubble of the Bay Area, I am always amazed at how many variations there are on happy, satisfied lives.
I think of travel as an educational opportunity one could never get from a book (although I do love my books). To paraphrase a quote I love: a thousand words cannot describe an apple in the same way as one single bite.
May we bite into life, vigorously and often.
Exploring,
Amy
