Travel, Exploration, & Adventure Are Good for You
can new adventures bring healing in unexpected places?
When I met the Wendy’s Eating Husband, I told him that we would never work out. I wrote numbered lists to prove why. One of the top numbered items was that he had never traveled outside of the U.S., let alone never traveled west of Ohio. It was hard enough for me that he had never tasted Indian food. You could say that I thought I was better than him.
As a child, I traveled all over the U.S. due to my mom and step-dad’s line of business. Although I got to see a lot of the U.S., I didn’t get to see much of my parents, since they were travelling to work. My sisters and I were usually on the watch of a babysitter or a kids program.
I saw Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe and was kneed in the back by a giraffe when I was 15. At 16, I practiced my Spanish in Mexico and had money stolen from me for the first time. At 17, I hiked Mt. Kilimanjaro and saw the market in Addis Ababa. When I was 19, I climbed through abandoned castles and sampled wine in the vineyards of France.
Two of my entire high school summers were spent in Africa. My sisters say that I “grew up in Africa”, and in a way, I did. Fortunately, my trips didn’t change me enough to write the Wendy’s Eating Husband off the list.
In Notes from a Blue Bike, Tsh Oxenreider says, “…the best way to understand our smallness is to leave our comfort zones and start exploring…”.
This is what I want for my family: to understand our smallness by exploring the world. In Notes from a Blue Bike, Tsh encourages every family to travel together internationally at least once. I have long been wanting to travel to France as a family as a “I finally finished medical school” excursion. The financial sacrifice of such a thing makes me nervous, being that I just racked up quite a bit of medical school expenses. But it’s not impossible.
However, Tsh reminded me in her book that I don’t have to travel internationally to drink up the world and fill my heart with new thrill. I can explore the next town over on the weekend, instead of cramming my Saturdays with meal prep, Costco, and gentle cycle laundry. Exploring the unknown stretches us and fills us in a way that brings new life, new ideas, and even new healing. Putting ourselves in an exciting spot where we are stretched beyond our comfort zone can, in some unfathomable way, bring healing in unexpected places.
I’ll end with a quote from her book that has me thinking:
“When you stay in the confines of your town for too long, your vision blurs.”
This post is part of the Blue Bike Blog Tour, which I’m thrilled to be part of. To learn more and join us, head here.
Notes From a Blue Bike is written by Tsh Oxenreider, founder and main voice of The Art of Simple. It doesn’t always feel like it, but we DO have the freedom to creatively change the everyday little things in our lives so that our path better aligns with our values and passions. Grab your copy here.
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