Travel is a distinct vibration within the heartbeat that some souls that walk this earth carry. We are a breed of nomads that have a need to move from place to place, even when we have a home base. We are filled with an instinct that makes us long for places unknown. Or maybe they are known, and we are just trying to rediscover them in this lifetime. Another theory of course may be that we are not even of this earth, and that we have a NEED to see as much of it as we can in this lifetime.
Even those among the population as a whole who consider themselves travelers, do not have this inner demand that makes us want to explore. I think maybe there are even fewer of us than most think. And perhaps we are even a rare breed.
I don’t mean those that vacation every year, that is NOT the same. People that vacation tend to go to the same places every year, trying to get rest from their busy life. They rarely travel that far afield, and generally go to places that offer a sense of security, comfort and that feeling of home. If that’s you, I mean no disrespect, because we all deserve a break, and those vacations are definitely required.
And I also don’t mean those who have a checklist of places to see before they die. A bucket list even. This is not about wanting to see as many places as you can before you die.
I am talking about those of us that truly have a need to be “in” and to “feel” other places on this earth. There are many sayings that capture that feeling, and all can be summed up with this:
“I long to walk in those places I have never been and have not yet seen.”
I actually think everyone has that one or two places that just seem to fascinate them. It’s like an internal calling to come, to live, to feel and to simply experience what that place has to offer. Maybe its cell memory calling you to places your soul has lived before. Or perhaps it’s just simple curiosity.
I think that the “nomads” of this world have more than one or two of those places. I know I do. There are many, many places that when I see them in pictures, or movies, or described in a book, that just that image or description can just give me instant goosebumps. Its like they have a silent whisper, calling to me, asking me to come home.
Strangely, I do not enjoy long, slow strolls through museums, staring at all those amazing pieces of history in front of me. Don’t get me wrong, they are truly fascinating and I can enjoy it for a short time, but I can’t spend a day walking aimlessly through their halls, staring for endless moments at each piece along the way. Give me an hour, and I am usually content.
Perhaps it’s because they are no longer in their natural place and instead just sitting idle, no longer with purpose. Maybe it’s the energy of their history that’s now missing. NO longer being handled and used by the souls that created them, they are just things, out of place from where they once belonged.
BUT, sit me in the middle of a large ruin, and I could walk along each path a dozen times, picturing in my mind’s eye the walls, the hallways, the stairwells, and the voices of the people that filled them.
Then put me at the top of a hillside temple and let me sit and stare out a gaping window or over a chest height wall at the view, or the garden, or the long roadway or hillsides outside, and I could stare for hours. All while letting the energy that seeps from the very earth beneath me, fill my soul.
Let me walk the streets of those ancient towns that sit in ruins, searching through the old streets, feeling the energy of those that have left time behind. THAT is how I experience history, by soaking up the spirit and power of what it has been left behind. I experience that place by being part of what it is now.
I think that is part of why I can be content with one trip to a place. By truly experiencing the best of what it has to offer, instead of yearly trips to the same location. Once my soul has soaked up that piece of missing energy and remembered why I needed to be there, I can find a bit of contentment because I have found that missing piece I needed. This allows me to move on to the next feeling, the next calling, the next place.
So, how do you travel? DO you like to visit the same places over and over, or do you, like me, need to experience a place fully, thus finding satisfaction and then being able to move onto the next calling?
