Ok, after too long of a break, I'm back, and I'll be (hopefully) posting more consistently from now on. We are back in Florida for the winter, and I took time off blogging to work on a novel, and in that time I have thought a lot about things I want to say on here.
Traveling has made me a better person in so many ways.
The kindness that has been shown to me by strangers has made me more sympathetic and more aware of the needs of others.
I would like to tell myself that I've always been someone who cares for the needs of others, but if I am being honest, I have often neglected the suffering of even people close to me. Again and again in my life I have found myself looking to my own needs and not looking far beyond that. For months we lived on the road, relying almost entirely on the kindness of strangers. Whether it was strangers offering us a shower to use, or throwing a few dollars into our box when we were out busking, those acts of kindness is what kept us alive. This kindness that was so readily bestowed upon us while we were traveling has become deeply ingrained in who I am as a person. I am more likely to notice the suffering of others, and more likely to step in and offer help. But more than that, I am more likely to notice someone's success, and cheer them on for their accomplishments as well.
On the road we met so many different types of people from different types of backgrounds. I found myself once sitting on the side of the road having a pleasant conversation with two Iraqi christian missionaries about tarot, and another time I ended up in a conversation with a man who thought his father was the most brilliant person ever for tricking fortune tellers in a time when it was illegal to read tarot. No matter who I was speaking to, or what background they came from, the road taught me to respond always with openness and kindness. I held a woman's hands as she prayed for my soul, and I looked into an ex convict's eyes as he told me he'd just gotten out of prison for 35 years, and then cheered with him a few days later when he told me how long he'd been clean. Travel has taught me that kindness and goodness comes in so many types of people, and they all deserve love.
Travel has opened my eyes further to the beauty of the world around us, allowing me to slow down and observe the wonder of it all. And travel has also given me the understanding that there are those who do not have the opportunity or ability to see the wonders of this earth, and for them I bring stories, I bring photographs, and I appreciate the infrastructure they help sustain, while I go out and explore.
Travel has made me infinitely better, and I am more than ready to see what else the road has to offer.
No comments:
Post a Comment