in Random Thoughts, Travel Tales

Wanderlust

During our Kashmir trip in 2011, we met a gentleman who was not enthused at all with the gorgeous snow clad mountains, river streams and beautiful valleys. He said, “its all the same!”

Wanderlust is as much about exploring our inner selves through journeys outside as it is about our internal openness to embrace change and uncertainty.

Loved this wonderful essay titled “The Art of Wanderlust” by Cody Delistraty in The Paris Review.

Hat Tip: Kenneth Mikkelsen for the pointer. Here are some excerpts.

“Not everyone can travel, but anyone can sit in front of a canvas, an image. To wander no longer requires one to have resources; instead, it is universal and should be depicted as such. No matter how much we travel—no matter which mountains we hike or which cloud-swept vistas we position ourselves in front of—it is only an internal openness to change that will ever really allow it to enter us.”

No matter the scene or the artwork, no matter what is in front of us or where we are, it is ultimately up to us how we react. Travel, geography, physical movement—these Romantic ideas of existentialism hold far less sway over our internal being than we’ve long thought. What most matters, rather, is how we’re made to feel, how we choose to feel, and how we allow ourselves to feel.

 

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