Travels of an Independent woman!

JC started reading this book on a cold winters evening. It is an old trick of his: He reads for us in this baritone, David Attenborough-voice...and I become putty...well....putty-like ;)

The first quote in the book is by Zora Hurston : 

"There are years that ask questions and years that answer." 

I knew I was going to love it! Having traveled and explored extensively as an (independent) woman, I could relate so many of the tales Alice Steinbach shared as she made her way from Paris to London and Oxford, on to Italy, following the must-do North to South trail. Whatever she experiences from her surroundings pale in comparison to her journey within. I am a true believer that we have to shift our perspective, our routine and comfort zones, to really get to know ourselves and to grow. My learnings have been to always have a plan, but to manage your expectations on how it unfolds; to fully live in the moment, rather than rushing of to the next destination;  and to be flexible to take any turn without being too hung up on the schedule... A perfect analogy for life.

Alice captures this when she writes...."I had my map and I started walking. When I approached the corner, I wondered: should I turn right? Or left? Then I realised that it didn't really matter. Either way, something new - perhaps a tiny adventure - awaited my arrival. I hurried down the street. Whatever was around the corner, I didn't want to miss a minute of it."

And this is the delight of travel. It reveals opportunities, it inspires and unexpectedly delights. But most of all it opens the windows to your soul:

We go abroad to wonder at the heights of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motions of the stars, and we pass by ourselves without wondering....

St Augustine

And just when I think I have done enough travel to last me a few life times, I find myself becoming restless again, almost like that Ionging for a soul-mate. A plaintive call which cannot be ignored. 

In the meantime, as I plan the next trip, this book will do nicely....

My soul places...

I believe, like Pythagoras, that everything is intelligent in its own way. I believe in nature as a "soul place" whose absence from our lives, are a direct cause of some of our "homesickness". I am a spiritual seeker, a systems thinker and a romantic. I am comfortable to stretch scientific horizons to discover what lies beneath the reflective surface of my own reality. 

Wildernis

Have we forgotten
that wilderness is not a place,
but a pattern of soul
where every tree, every bird and beast
is a soul maker?

Have we forgotten
that wilderness is not a place
but a moving feast of stars,
footprints, scales and beginnings?
Since when
did we become afraid of the night
and that only the bright stars count?
Or that our moon is not a moon
unless it is full?

By whose command
were the animals
through groping fingers,
one for each hand,
reduced to the big and little five?

Have we forgotten
that every creature is within us
carried by tides
of Earthly blood
and that we named them?

Have we forgotten
that wilderness is not a place,
but a season
and that we are in its
final hour?

Ian Mccallum