Tuesday, January 4, 2011

And so begins the journey...

A dear friend recently lent me a copy of John Steinbeck's Travels with Charley: In Search of America. As I read, I am reminded of how much I enjoy Steinbeck's rich prose. In this non-fiction piece about his journey across America, he writes the following:

"Once a journey is designed, equipped, and put in process, a new factor enters and takes over. A trip, a safari, an exploration, is an entity, different from all other journeys. It has no personality, temperament, individuality, uniqueness. A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policing, and coercion are fruitless. We find after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us. Tour masters, schedules, reservations, brass-bound and inevitable, dash themselves to wreckage on the personality of the trip. Only when this is recognized can the blown-in-the glass bum relax and go along with it. Only then do the frustrations fall away. In this a journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it."

He captures in ways I never could a quality I feel about most of my trips, especially those to places I am visiting for the first time. "We do not take a trip; a trip takes us." I surrender fully to this Honduras Adventure and whatever it has in store for me. No matter how much one reads guidebooks, looks at photos, browses websites (even Google Earth!), there is no way to predict what it will actually feel like to be in this new locale. The sights, smells, intangible "vibes." I am continually humbled when I travel; it is always so different and so much more than I could have ever expected. I imagine this journey will be no different. I want to embark on this journey with Beginner's Mind. I am ready to be present with however this path unfolds. :)

Okay, off to the airport!

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