A Thai monk once told me: “You know why you like to travel? Everywhere you go, nothing belongs to you.
When you’re home, you’re weighed down by your possessions.”
this quote seems apropos. i spent the last few days with the First Family (of Scottsdale fame) as they took their show on the road. it was an all girls road trip which included such memorable events as a picnic with a walk where poisonous insects were avoided, a Children of the Corn detour, wind that could have taken all of Kansas to Oz, a surprising interaction with the border patrol, and touching quotes like “you are the best sister!”
the road trip ended in Dallas/Ft.Worth, where a temporary home was waiting for the First Family. according to the Miss Sarita (aka the First Daughter) the new house is a castle not a “townhouse” as we told her. we were amused to later find the homes are actually “manors”…we aren’t English so how would we know the difference?!
As the girls anxiously awaited their many items following us on the big orange truck, the Lord of the aforementioned “manor” once again wished for less and proceeded to sell his items on EBay while the movers unloaded the family’s possessions.
these are the moments i treasure. daily life and times with the First Family.
Moving, travel, possessions and home- all so intricately intertwined. what to do i wonder? how do you travel AND live with less? or does the amount really matter? what if it isn’t the amount but the value you place on the items you have with and around you? you can have 3 things that weigh you down the same way one can have 20. certainly the higher the amount the more you have to manage but if you care little about those items then potentially you have very little to manage.
I write this now from above Amarillo, 36162 miles above to be exact. we are traveling at 443 mph with only 1198 miles to our arrival point. i would say home but is it? it is where i work, where my career has been, and at times it has been home, but now i am not sure. it would be more appropriate to say it is my base for the moment. i have a home where i sleep, make my meals, and where most of my belongings reside. it is just a space though and i could trade it for another in a heartbeat. truly what keeps me in this particular area is my work.
home for me is where i am with family, friends or where i am discovering more about the world (and the people in it). to me, home is being in the presence of another not for a random dinner but for daily life activities and conversations. dinners are lovely but you are sharing events. we miss out on that happened before the event…it is like talking about destination without knowing about the journey. isn’t the journey the best part?
and all this rambling brings me back to the quote that started this post- are we so weighed down by possessions and the acts it takes to acquire them, that we miss out on the moments that are seemingly about nothing but truly about everything?
pictures from the road to come. more from the sky- 36178 above ground.
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