Weekend Self-Care: The Joys of Travel
In honor of both LL and GBurg's adventures in Espana, it is my privilege to announce this weekend's self-care theme of the joys of travel.
Traveling helps ground us. It enlightens us. It humbles us. It creates for us the sense of the world beyond, a world beyond our comforts and our privilege. It challenges our perceived notions of the world. It brings us closer together. Traveling in far distant lands makes us appreciate what we have at home that much more and teaches us about a world we've only glimpsed through guide books and YouTube videos.
I was sixteen years old when I read James A. Michener's The Drifters, the story of an unlikely coterie of companions who just so happen to wind up in the Spanish resort town of Torremolinos. From there, the newly joined group throws caution to the wind and decides to travel together without a map or a care in the world. Love and friendships emerged. Relationships grow and fade. Eventually, the group dwindles with only the memories of their time together remaining. But while this may have been a bittersweet tale in the end, its journey truly captured my sixteen-year-old imagination. I wanted to travel. I wanted to travel even more in my 20s and early 30s. And now that I'm married, I want to one travel travel with my wife and our future children so they, too, can experience the joys of travel.
So go ahead and channel your LL's and your G'Burg's. Make time for that road trip or that flight abroad. Try to converse in one's native language. Try the local cuisine. Dance the local dance. Down that first glass of wine on the plaza and then down a second, just for kicks. Go off the beaten bath. Watch the sunrise and sunset from two vastly different spots of the city. And smile. A smile is the universal symbol for happiness. No matter where you end up, a smile back is the most rewarding gift you can be given.
This is your joys of travel weekend self-care. As always, be beautiful to yourselves and those around you.