Wednesday, April 23, 2014

"Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not."
 Ralph Waldo Emerson




A universal truth never sang so sweetly in my ear, never nestled itself so deeply into my heart nor aligned itself so perfectly with the very thread of me. This has been a lesson I have had to learn since my first big adventure into the world. Escape is easy; anyone can abandon their problems, fears, and even their true selves for the seductive haze of travel. Leave all of their worries at home and let their eyes be hypnotized by the blur of colors, faces, and oceans of the world. But true happiness, true contentment with self and story comes when your days are filled with errands and e-mails and every day monotony and you're still out there on the street, smiling like a fool.

As I gear up for my next big trip, I want to get back into the swing of this blogging thing. In the years since my trip to Cape Town, curiosity has been nibbling at my ankles, propelling me to chase passport stamps. But it has been an ongoing challenge to see the excitement and beauty in the every day. I've learned that adventure is not something that exists only in jungles and lakes and mountains of lands I don't live in. Rather it is a frame of mind, a way of life. Adventure can be wandering off from a trail you run daily, or closing your eyes and pointing to a dish on a menu you can't read. Adventure can be every day, and it can be small. It can fit into the tiniest cracks of a person's daily life. And isn't that a great and necessary thing to remember?









Photos:
1. A little girl at Crissy Field
2. Towering over San Francisco
3. An installation at Coachella
4. My favorite colors: the California coast
5. Da bridge
6. My best friend feeling the Pacific Ocean for the first time
7. Big Sur, CA
8. The tail end of a sunset in Newport Beach

2 comments: