Hello friends,
When I was growing up, my family didn’t take lavish vacations, fly to foreign lands, or even drive across the continental USA. We did make small trips within Texas, San Antonio, Austin, and Galveston, but even those were few and far between.
The memories of those small excursions remain with me. My body feels the rumble of the road as our white 1955 Ford Station wagon with turquoise interior strained to lug a rented travel trailer. Four restless youngsters wanted to ride inside that trailer free from parental eyes. We never considered the danger and how we might find ourselves jostled to and fro, but that didn’t stop us from begging.
One night, we heard the laughter and shouts of a drunken party in the wooded trailer park. I remember the fear of what would happen if they knocked on the trailer door wanting to enter or decided to push against the outside of the trailer, flipping us over as we clung to the walls.
I had quite an imagination. Nothing happened, and we all woke up to birds singing and the sunshine crisscrossing the small confines of our temporary home.
Travel, leaving your little corner of the world, can have a profound effect. Not everyone has the luxury of either time, money, or both to venture far from home. Sometimes, our existence shrinks into the walls that protect us.
Those few trips as a child planted a hunger to see places, people, cultures, and experience life outside my familiar surroundings. Between business trips and vacations, I cherish glimpses of history, new foods, customs, and similarities all humans share.
We’re not so different after all.
Even if we can never stray too far from home, looking outside our window, daring to talk to others, and opening our hearts to the unfamiliar teaches us much about the world and ourselves.
Summer is coming to a close despite temperatures in the high 90s in southeast Texas, but I enjoy reminiscing on how love grows wild as the summer rose.
I just finished reading The Venice Sketchbook by Rhys Bowen. Her splendid descriptions of Venice drew me back to our visit in this magical place over 20 years ago.
No matter where you are , take a musical trip to anywhere in the world with “Come Fly With Me,” Leaving on a Jet Plane,” or “April in Paris.”
“To my mind, the greatest reward and luxury of travel is to be able to experience everyday things as if for the first time, to be in a position in which almost nothing is so familiar it is taken for granted.”
—Bill Bryson
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.”
—Mark Twain
Find a little wonder this week near or far away.
With gratitude,
Kathryn
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