Traveling and coming home

A gardening blogging friend had a lovely piece that I read today:

https://ts-casamariposa.blogspot.com/2018/07/theres-only-one-road-to-now.html?m=1

It reminded me about how we come home in mid-life to who we really are, why traveling can be important, how travel can be pilgrimage, and how finding a place that feels like home is so special.

I've written a lot of posts over the years about traveling; we've been fortunate to be able to visit many places in the world over the last decades; without children, on an academic schedule, we've been free at winter break and summers to seek out destinations because they're interesting as "natural" places and/or culturally rich places.

We travel as travelers.  We try to experience where we are and try to understand the culture and lives of the people who live there.  Visiting outdoor markets, hiking on trails in natural areas, visiting museums of all sorts; this is the fabric of traveling as we experience it.

But I also realized, reading Tammy's post, that we've come home, too, this summer.

Bumbling onto a wonderful historic house next to a fabulous national park  -- well, I'm channeling my youthful days hiking in the Rocky Mountains and the Northern Cascades. My gardening companion is seeing the surf of his youth growing up in Southern California along the St. Lawrence River, as well as remembering the mountains of Northern California that he fell in love with as a college student.

It's wonderful.

view from the ridge above the house


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