With the world around us opening more and more each day to personal exploration through travel, a natural excitement and energy bubbles up in the hearts and minds of passport, smartphone and credit card carrying nomads from far and wide. The ability to enter locations and lives, seeing sights, inhaling scents, and responding to smiles different from those of ‘home’, and gaining deeper understanding of not just other worlds but one’s worlds within – these are just some of the blessings of travel.
Yet, with all of the places to go, people to meet, foods to sample, handcrafts to purchase, views to absorb, photographs to post, and ticks to put against the lists, all too often the busy, busy pursuits of travel turns moments and memories into a blur. ‘Being there’ has become so packed with experiences to absorb, followed by a pressure to move on to make more memories happen, that all so easily it can result in missing out on making ‘real’ the here and now. The moments long dreamt of from afar continue to feel out there.
Sadly, the details that most deeply touch one’s heart and penetrate one’s memories, can become lost:
Listening to the lapping of water at the side of a boat as it sits peacefully on the waters of the Nile…
Spotting the tiny heads of Hype Park spring flowers courageously coming out of wintry ground in search of glimpses of sunshine even though the change of seasons is still weeks away…
Watching a local parent watching his young child carefully eat an ice cream cone, the little lad’s intensity of focus unwavering, unaware of the sweet mess looming…
Looking into the eyes of Luxor’s horses pausing for a break and brief feeding before their next guests arrive to be taken on a city tour via carriage…
Standing quietly in the darkness to find the faint yet formidable lines of the Great Pyramids of Giza, illuminated by a mere handful of stars above…
They are all out there. Tiny moments, precious moments, that bring to life dreams of travel.
For all of the picture-perfect images that can be captured by cameras, the perfect moments of travel go far beyond when they are captured by being still – listening to the silence as the scene is being absorbed. And feeling the heartbeat of the subject of one’s attention and affection, whether animate or not.
These are the lifelong, worldwide, travel inspired moments all around us, little gifts waiting to be uncovered each and every day.
There they are, to be discovered and held dear as deeply personal, favourite memories…..though only found and felt, by being still.
Copyright: ANITA MENDIRATTA 2015
Yes, Anita. This is exactly it! Imagine travelling to Cape Town, and being offered the opportunity to do a world-healing or peace meditation on top of Table Mountain? Or joining a drumming circle on the beach? Those sacred moments, shared and acknowledged, will not be forgotten.