Heading Out

"For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move."

~ Robert Louis Stevenson

Like so many of my friends and co-workers, I love to travel. Being on the move lends an element of adventure to my life. It also keeps me connected with the people I have had the great fortune of meeting over the years. I see new sights and learn previously unknown facts each and every time, no matter how many times I've visited a place.

Tomorrow morning, I once again leave home for the wilds of Seattle. I've been there many times, visiting with the same friends annually, occasionally seeing other friends who live in the area as well. Each trip is a new and renewed adventure. Sometimes we go to the same places: Pike Street Market, St. Mark's Cathedral, UW campus, downtown, the Seattle Art Museum. Even trips to Goodwill and Costco are adventures because these are not my home territory. We walk the streets, hills and parks. I see the sunset over a different landscape. All of these things, small and large, renew and refresh my spirit. I am filled with gratitude for the opportunity to go as well as the friends to visit.

Do you like to travel? What is your favorite destination? How do you feel prior to heading out?

Wednesday #1

Traveller, your footprints
Are the path and nothing more;
Traveller, there is no path,
The path is made by walking.

~ Antonio Machado, Traveller, There is No Path

During this season, more than at almost any other time of year, I feel the traveller, the pilgrim within me, expressing herself more and more. Maybe it's the Spring with its new buds and greenery and lambing. Maybe it's the flow of sap once again after the sluggishness of winter. maybe it's the stretching of the limbs after hibernation. For whatever reason, my pull during this season is to move.

"The path is made by walking." Have you ever walked in a forest or on a hillside or along a road and noticed a path heading off in some unknown direction? Maybe one that was barely noticeable? What did you think? Were you drawn to explore it, to investigate where it led?

Many paths I trod in my life were barely visible markings on the ground. Others were covered with mist. still others were unlit by more than the stars of the night sky. The destination not always assured. Every step an adventure in trust. For each of these I am eternally grateful.