I've just been to Italy. No, really.
Do you find that when you watch movies, look at photos, or read a book, you're really there? I mean, you feel like you enter into the world you're filling your brain with? I do.
I just spent the last 20 minutes or so looking at pictures of my sister and her husband, as well as some good old friends of ours. They just got back from Italy where they were at a wedding for yet more friends of ours. The website is that of my friend, Trevor Johnston. Check it out! Take a trip to Italy!
I feel like I've just returned. I've been known to do this with books - who hasn't? Books are particularly good for going elsewhere for a while. Movies, well, I included them at the top, but it's just not quite the same, is it? It's different when you've just got everything in front of you - sound, movement, colour. It's much more exciting to look at a series of photos so that you have to fill in the blanks of what the context is, and what happened between this photo and the last.
In a similar way to having just been in Italy, I've also been all across Canada and a little of the States with Dan and Katie. Going through that website is like taking the trip with them.
I have to admit, that as much as I love escaping like this, when I finally return to normal existence I feel rather glum. I want to go and experience those things too! I want to rent a villa in Italy, or live in a bungalow in Bali. I want to drive where the wind takes me and stop on the side of the road for lunch. If Plava's sleepy, I want to lay her down on a blanket in a meadow to sleep, and maybe catch a nap myself. I want to sleep in a van that has a pop up tent - one that has a skylight so Ryan and I can gaze at the stars as we whisper and drift off to sleep.
Don't these things sound amazing?
Sometimes the grind that we find ourselves in seems so pointless. "It's all smoke and mirrors," if I can borrow a certain wise king's words. What's the point of working just in order to make enough money to live? Is owning a house, a car (or two), and lots of furniture worth it? Is this what we were meant for? Is there nothing more?
I think there is.
I'm in no place to sell our house, cars, and furniture and buy a VW Van and take off into the sunset, but the prospect lures me. Oh what to do? Sometimes something strikes me as totally right - and yet it seems so unattainable, or so reckless.
Maybe reckless isn't so bad..... yeeesh. I don't know.
"Meaningless! Meaningless!" says the Teacher. "Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless." What does man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun?
All things are wearisome, more than one can say.
Ecclesiastes 1:2-3,8
3 comments:
I hear you. So many times I find myself anticipating all of the next "steps" in life...house, kids, whatever. Then I look at something like your friend's trip through Canada and the States and it makes me take a moment to evaluate my life. Hmmm...do I really want to jump into all of that right now? I'm not sure. Kevin and I have a goal to go on a big trip of some sort next summer before we decide to try and have kids. I hope that we actually stick to that goal. This post inspired me! I'm going to go and tuck some more money away in our trip jar.
You quoted Colin's favorite Bible verse. Well, maybe not FAVORITE, but the verse that really makes him think. I actually enjoy being brought back to that verse, because it proves that there is something more to life than the daily "grind" you were talking about!
Thanks for the reminder. It came at a good time :-)
Man, your friends Dan and Katie have inspired Kev and I. I sent him the link for their trip and he also thought it was incredibly cool. We are totally thinking of doing something similar now for next summer, except we would start by going down the PCH to Cali. Oh I can't wait! I was online today checking some stuff out. I figure it will take us about a year just to plan all the places we want to go and people we want to see!
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