The Whirl

Comfort:  A state of ease and quiet enjoyment, free from worry, pain, etc.


Travel need not involve an epic journey; a simple visit to the bagel store at the end of the street can bring it on.  What it awakens is a latent, childlike, sense of wonder at the world around us.


Nevertheless, it is long journeys that bring out the possibilities of new experience most strongly, removing us from our familiar comforts and security, taking us into new situations, alone and vulnerable, our minds open to the world and its sensations, bringing about an enhanced sense of perception.  Such travel can also allow us to rediscover parts of our own selves that are normally obscured by the hum-drum routines of daily life.  Travel allows us to tap into parts of the self that are generally obscured by chatter and routine, and also to realize how subjective our certainties can be.


I carry a scrap of newsprint around with me that has these words.  I don't even remember any more where it came from.  I use it, of course, to justify my own feelings about the world, but that's OK.  I like to take chances on things and I like to bemoan my fate when the chances don't pan out as I have expected.  I'm impatient to see how things will work out.  I'm impatient to see the future.  I want to know I'm Doing It Right.


I once visited Venice, Italy.  It was my first trip out of the country and I was beyond nervous.  We walked out of the train station and into a painting.  The scene so took my breath away that I had to sit down on the steps that led into the city.  I think my knees buckled.  I had never seen anything like it.  Most of the trip was miserable because I was so afraid to be so out of my comfort zone but it awakened something powerful in me.  After that trip, I have rarely been afraid to give something a whirl.  


It's the whirl that's so much fun.