Day 30: Seeing The Beauty
Why do we travel? Why do so many of us feel this need to escape the bounds of our current location and explore places so completely foreign to us? There is so much magic associated with traveling and exploring new places. Within many of us there is this desire to go out and reach for the places we have never seen.
There is something so enticing about getting away from the places you know so well and traveling into the new. You get to witness new things and new places. People pass you on all sides that you will never see again and will never know.
There is so much to explore when traveling. It opens your mind to ideas and concepts you never considered before and widens your perception of reality. Something about seeing things from a new perspective allows you to go back to your home with new eyes. Everything looks a little bit different now.
Recently I had the amazing chance to travel outside of the United States for the first time. My family and I spent most of our time in the highlands of Scotland and a few days in Paris, France. During this incredible experience I had the opportunity to feel the sensation of seeing completely new places. There's was something so intoxicating about witnessing things so beautiful, yet knowing I was so far away from home.
More often than not we find ourselves in the same places over and over. We have a routine in our lives and we travel here and there to places familiar to us. Going to a place we have never seen before is beautiful and inexplicable feeling. There seems to be magic in the air and gorgeous things to look at around every corner.
Returning from traveling can often leave you with this feeling of an itch just under your skin. It is always there and no matter how much you scratch at it, it does not go away. The only relief for such an itch is traveling again, yet when you return you may find that the itch is even more persistent.
Travel is bewitching, it places this desire in your heart that leaves you breathless. All you want to do is go out again and explore the places you've never seen. I know that upon returning from my trip all I have wanted to do it get away, see new places, and pass by people I will simply never know.
However, how can we capture this curiosity for the unknown and apply it to our home? Because we pass by a place so many times it can become dull and uninteresting. Yet the places we live and the places we go constantly are full of wonder. We must simply look at these places with new eyes.
It is not that the places need to change in order for it to be beautiful. We must change our perspective in order to see the beauty. It is all around us and the itch we feel under our skin is simply our body telling our mind to look for the wonderful. The more we look for it the more we will see.
Yes, traveling is an incredible experience, but never let the need to get away detract from the beauty of home.
Until Next Time,
Lillian Merritt
