"Traveling...forces you to trust strangers and lose sight of all that familiar comfort of home and friends. You are constantly off balance. Nothing is yours except essential things--air, sleep, dreams, the sea, the sky--all things tending towards the eternal or what we imagine of it." Cesare Pavese
My first travel experience ignited an unquenchable desire to live on the edge of uncertainty. Looking back it seems pretty tame, but when I was twenty and sailed to Europe for the summer equipped with gutsiness, too much luggage, the original "Europe on Five Dollars a Day"and just short of the right amount of money to last me for two months, I felt like an adventurer. I hosteled, took trains, ate cheaply, hitchhiked, was rescued by strangers when my money ran out, fell in love for a few days and learned I could take care of myself. There were more years of travel on my own, then with my husband and later with the children and after we started taking tours, travel lost it's charm for me. Now as I'm writing this, I think why not. Why couldn't I travel like that again...only without the running out of money part. I'm putting this thought on my list for this year.
This morning I'm off with some friends to the Palm Springs Film Festival where we'll gorge on movies for a few days. I'll be back with you on Saturday.
Baruch ata adonai...may I be healthy as I travel and remember the joy to be found on the edge of uncertainty. Amen
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