I got a super interesting email from my college roommate yesterday, and with her permission and credit (thanks, TJ!), I want to use it as the basis for today’s post. Here’s what she wrote:
“This morning I was reading the House Call section in The WSJ and it featured designer Cynthia Rowley. She is an avid traveler. Her vacation rule of thumb? ‘Never go anywhere twice’… consider that”
Oh… so many ways to go with this, and it could be applied to travel, relationships, life… do we ever really go anywhere twice? Is anyplace ever actually the same, never mind are WE ever the same?
As I think I mentioned in a previous post, I’m currently in Tuscany, in Casetelfiorentino (about 19 miles outside of Florence), celebrating a friends 50th birthday. There are about 35 people here in this renovated farmhouse in the Tuscan countryside, and it’s the most eclectic and interesting group of people I’ve ever had the pleasure of spending four days eating and drinking and dancing and conversing with… with the possible exception of the amazing humans I met at the Modern Elder Academy in Baja, but 8 of them are here, so it’s just the perfect storm of social and intellectual fun for me.
To give you an idea of the stunning beauty here, this is the view from my morning meditation and journaling spot:
Last night we went to see Andrea Bocelli perform at an amphitheater about an hour from here, and during a rain delay, he actually came out with an acoustic guitar and sang several songs – one of which was “Hallelujah”, sung together with his 10 year old daughter – THAT is a travel experience that I will never be able duplicate. So clearly, next time I come to this part of the world, and I for SURE plan to, it will be a very different experience than this one.
In general, I’d say I fall in the wanting-new-experiences-over-going-back-to-familiar-places camp, but I love this idea of an experience being new even if a location isn’t. At dinner the other night, I brought this topic up with the group and one woman I had just met had such a poetic response. She said “it’s both/and… I have an affair with travel AND I love coming back home… there are places in the world that I have loved, and when the affair with that place has ended, I can move on to others.” Another woman who has been married for 29 years absolutely craves new experiences… so, then, is perhaps what we seek in travel what we’re missing at home?
Another astute observer pointed out that avid travelers have the privilege of having the option for repeats… and therefore can recognize the nuances of coming back to a place and seeing it in a different way. When we show up somewhere new, we (hopefully) bring our “beginner’s mind”, but experience allows us to show up with more confidence and familiarity.
So what do you look for in travel? What do you crave and what itch does it scratch for you? Can we all do a better job of showing up in a new place with a beginner’s mind and allow it to wash over us and soak in and become part of us, giving us that confidence and familiarity to continue to see it in new and different ways?
Discuss, friends… and let me know what you think 😘
In love and adventure,
Traveling Girl
Traveling Girl With a Glass 