Nothing Is Normal Anymore

“Once you have traveled, the voyage never ends, but is played out over and over again in the quietest chambers. The mind can never break off from the journey.” (Pat Conroy, novelist)

From my deck the voyage continues....

I am home again, but these last two mornings I’ve awakened with the thoughts, feelings, and scenery of our recent road trip in my mind.  Conroy is right, the “voyage never ends.”  Monument Valley is no longer something I’ve seen on film and in photographs.  It is a reality experienced and that reality (the grandeur and wonder of it) is now a part of me.  I can feel the cold wind blowing as we rode in the open air tourist truck through the valley.  I can smell the dust.  I can see (in my mind) the lofty battlements of red rock as though I were still there.  

But I am not there now.  I am home.  There is now a lawn to be mowed, gardens to tend, and weeds to pull.  There is mail to sort, to read, to respond too, and some to toss.  There are chores galore!  Is my life back to normal?  By no means!  The adventures live on and are played out in “the quietest chambers,” and nothing can ever be normal again.  

and I can see...

This is the great benefit of travel—both abroad and in our own land—the adventure never ends and life can never be “normal” (the same) again.  This happened to me long ago when I first left home at 17 years of age and traveled to distant places such as Greece, Crete, Syria, Jordan, Israel, Lebanon, Egypt, Germany, etc.  Indeed, I confess, nothing has been normal since (as many of you already know) for I carry this greater world within me—and “it plays out over and over again in the quietest chambers.”