On Traveling

My dad had a phrase he'd use a lot when we were traveling or camping, especially when he wasn't sure exactly where we were.  He'd say, "It's just around the next bend."  When I was little I didn't realize the significance of those words.  I'm not sure he did.  It became a little joke between us.  But now, after years and years of traveling (I must have picked up the travel "bug" from my dad!), those five words are the reason why I love to travel.  I don't understand people who say they don't want or don't like to travel, or those who say they would never travel outside the US.  I wonder what they're afraid of.  Are they fearful of what's around the next bend?  I suppose for some, it is scary - the "not knowing".  For me, it's exactly why I love to travel!  I've learned so much about myself from being in a new place.  It forces me to stretch beyond my idea of who I am.  Every new place and adventure adds to the person of "Candy".  I've never been one of those people content to simply read about life.  Oh, I do love to read!  It's the cheapest form of travel.  I learned that when I was a child.  You can be anyone, anywhere, in any time period when you read a book.  As an extremely visual person, I have a "movie" going in my head when I read.  I much prefer reading out loud as I love the sounds of the words and the pictures that they paint on the canvas of my imagination.  But, if I can have the real thing - the actual experience of being in a different place - then I feel that I'm the luckiest person on earth.  I have "lived" with the Neanderthals in the south of France, with the Romans in Italy and France, with Richard the Lionheart as he conquered towns during the middle ages, with Michelangelo as he painted the Sistine Chapel, with Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette as they lived the life of luxury and then were executed by the people they loved, with the Mayans in their temples to the rain god.  Oh, I could go on and on.  And yes, I could read about all of them, but it isn't the same as walking where they walked and feeling their spirits become part of my life.  That's what I mean about stretching who I am.  And so I thank my daddy every time I travel and feel his spirit of adventure in me.  To all of you travelers (in life, if no where else!) I say to embrace the idea that we don't have all the answers and we don't know what will happen next. Seeing things from a new and different perspective is, not only healthy mentally and emotionally, but will change how you view yourself and the world.   So take the challenge to go down that path - either treading lightly or running full steam ahead - to see what's around the next bend.   A bientôt!