pre travel

I have been staring at pictures of lands unknown. I have become a peeping Tom into the great big world out there. Staring into the windows of other people’s captured moments. There is a quiet excitement to the process.

As I plan this trip, my excitement grows, along with a tremor of vulnerability. I can’t quite explain it, but there is a squiggle (yes, a squiggle) of emotion that moves somewhere between my gut and the center of my heart. It makes me feel small; like an ant, peering up towards this world, so big and most of it so unknown to me. It makes me feel emotional. As if I could laugh and cry at the exact same moment. It makes me catch my breath and get quiet.

I don’t understand how I am supposed to live my life. It’s a question that I ponder frequently and never fully arrive to an answer for. I know the fundamentals… I live it with love, integrity, respect, joy and adventure. And compassion. And more.  But what about the rest?

The idea of travel itches something in me. This idea that I could explode into a thousand particles across the plain of the great big world and all would be okay. That itch, however, then stirs something else up. Is it doubt? Is it reality? Is it???? I don’t quite know… It’s this sense of limitation. I can’t travel forever. I don’t have the money or resources for it. I can’t travel forever. What about my work? I love my work. I can’t travel forever. Just… because.

But I want to.

Staring at photos of Bolivia (this is where we’re thinking we’ll start), I can’t help but want to be gone forever. Or at least a really really long time. 

3 months is starting to feel much too short.

Click this link for photos of Salar De Uyuni- http://www.atlantisbolivia.org/tunupagallery.htm  A place I can't, can't, can't wait to see. We're going in the dry season so we might not see the water covering it, as in these pics, but I am keeping my fingers crossed and praying for some rain.

Our current plan. Bolivia-Peru-Ecuador-Columbia-Venezuela.