ME: “I’m back.”YOU: “What?”, you ask the Other across the breakfast table, “I didn’t know she was away.”
ME: “Yessss…I just drove 11,767 kms. forth and back across our fair and great country – an accomplishment of galactic proportions and worthy of worship.
I mean, you didn’t even miss me?”
YOU: “Ummm….”
Yup, I just stepped out for a breath of fresh air and the next thing I knew I was in the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto.
It’s the shoes.
It’s always the shoes. The first step to another adventure.
By the way, if money can’t buy happiness, explain shoes.
Victoria, Prince Edward Island
Grant me chastity and self-control, but please, God, not yet. – St. Augustine
Travelling the breadth of our country is like continually writing a love letter, as each step I took led to a deeper admiration, appreciation and understanding that we are always in partnership with nature and humanity.
Even if we live alone or cloistered like the nuns in Le Monastère des Augustines in Quebec City (staying here was the highlight of my trip), no one exists alone in this world. https://monastere.ca/en
Travelling is one of the few things we undertake in an attempt to make ourselves happy, often in our particular and individual solipsistic way. And often, in mesmerizing ways, we fail.
We get frustrated, obnoxious, impatient, and sometimes downright rude when things don’t go our way, when there are delays, when something is unfamiliar or uncomfortable, or when the obtuse waiter forgets to bring wine with our cheese.
The Blue Rocks, Nova Scotia
There are few things that can shake up our baseboards and open up our eyes than travelling.
Except maybe sag and new liver spots.
We no longer have excuses of too much work at the office, we’re the best man at our step-brother’s wedding, have children to take to soccer and mother-in-laws to the doctor – we are stripped clean of all our props.
Travelling is not that simple, and like most everything else, like purging, hanging art and picking exterior colours, it’s an art that has to be learned and practiced.
Lunenburg, Nova Scotia
Travel makes you focus on the here and now, not the past wrong turn. And trust me, there were many.
Many who wander, are indeed lost. Or is it just me?
But I played the cards I’d been dealt with the elegance of wet cardboard, demonstrating some outstanding bad behaviour.
(By the way, before you judge someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you judge them, you’re a mile away and you have their shoes.)
Nelson Mandela Exhibition: Canadian Museum of Human Rights, Winnipeg
This shows you how my mind works — quick, and away from the point.
There is, in fact, such a thing as going to a place and not actually being there.
But here’s the thing. It is fast becoming an epidemic of epic proportions; taking pictures of anything and anyone that moves or doesn’t, the second one enters a room, sights a building, or of a small bird flying107 feet above them.It is deploring how seldom people actually see – notice details, nuances, the dappling of shapes and shadows, the beauty of imperfection: scratches, chips, cracks. Or pay attention to their feelings and impressions – not only of simple things, but often impressive things.
We need to slow down and spend longer looking, maybe even leaving your camera in the car in order to enjoy the moment for what it is, and what it leaves you with.
Think about how often you revisit the multitudes of pictures compared to how often you remember and retell your experiences.
And how often do you allow yourself to sit at a cafe or a park bench, and just watch people?
Quebec City
We travellers lose things that are precious to us (makeup kit, pyjamas bottoms, driver’s license, lens cap, one sandal, iPhone cord, three socks and four books), have plans that fall apart and then come together, find folk artisans, hat-makers to the stars, the tallest waterfall, pilot whales and bald eagles, unknown animals in trees, a weird sculpture park, a gravity hill, and make profound friendships with people we may never see again.
Timmons Folk Art – Pleasant Bay, Nova Scotia
Lakenenland – Marquette County, Michigan
Somewhere, U.S.A. Ellsworth, Michigan
Pleasant Bay, Nova Scotia Massey Motel, Michigan
Travelling can teach us to try new colour combinations, to add more texture, or to sprinkle some joy with unique and special pieces purchased along the way. These are the pieces that level up a room, adding personality and soul, as well as reminding you of your travels every time you step into the room.
Lunenburg, Nova Scotia Victoria, Prince Edward Island
Bar Harbour, Maine Blue Rocks, Nova Scotia
Wherever you go, you bring yourself along with you.
Travel, like our home, has a memorializing function, and what they are helping us to remember is, strangely enough, ourselves.
Travelling, like a well-designed room, requires at once, a touch of sophistication whilst having an edge.In a room, that means pairing something slick or smooth with an element that is rough or has that timeworn patina; a bit of grit with a whole lotta glam.
Saint-Pierre-de-Ile-d’Orleans, Quebec
The lessons we learn while traveling are the ones we receive on our inward journey. That is the true power of travel. It shows us that there’s a world of endless opportunity to be discovered and waiting for us. Ultimately it’s the journey within the journey that matters the most, and which will take us the furthest.
Great post Karyn! As always; creative, stimulating and intuitive. 🙂
Enjoy your weekend
Ann
Delightful Karyn!
Stories to tell for sure; glad it was ( at the end of the day) totally Epic.
And, Thanks for sharing!
12,ooo km’s ??? wow.