New York State of Mind
Parker:
I have traveled to 20 countries. Sometimes they were longer trips, other times, they were holidays – sometimes, only for a day. There are many things to love about travelling, but the one I’ll highlight is being present.
I am a planner, strategic – I organize. It can be a busy life, a hurried and harried life, and while I don’t think planning is bad, sometimes, it feels as though I’m always preparing for something else. In short, it’s hard to live in the moment on a regular basis (though of course I do try).
But travelling – it allows me to forget (compartmentalize perhaps) and move away from that life on a calendar, it allows me to stop and see and smell and taste in a completely different way. I am sure I am not alone in this. I don’t typically have a great memory, and I’m sure I’ve forgotten (sadly) more than I remember – but some things have really stuck with me from travelling. I could stop – maybe for scenery or to be alone, in thought (on a bench, on a hill, in Scotland, if you’re wondering) and with my thoughts. And while it might take a few days to relax, no matter whether it’s a beach vacation or an exploring holiday, it doesn’t take long for my daily life to fall away. I catch myself, sometimes, thinking about who I really am, outside of my daily life – it’s an opportunity to evaluate and learn about myself. I know that it’s a privilege to be able to travel on a regular basis and to (mostly) freely move between countries. I am grateful for the opportunities I’ve had. And I don’t have to go far for this to happen – it can just be across the country, or to another city (NYC for example).
I haven’t been travelling beyond Canada and the US of late, but I look forward to being able to do so again before too long. I am able to find the present here, in my everyday life too – but travelling just makes it easier to get to that state of mind.
Adrienne:
I love traveling, and yes, pretty much anywhere. It takes me about 100 km to become unclipped from my life. Literally, that’s it. I love reading your post. It reminds me how important that is for not just my sanity, but my creativity. As I am moving closer and closer to writing for a living, that (mostly) complete unclipping will certainly be a huge part of my success. Funny, it will be the product of my success with the Homeopathy project, and also the immediate generator of further success as a writer.
It’s fun to think of that – success as a writer – what does that even mean? The definition of success as a writer is definitely different than how I define success with regards to my Homeopathy practice, esp as it dissolves into the Homeopathy blogging project. That’s pretty neat for me to see – and frankly, I am suddenly seeing it more clearly because of your post. My mind has this weird way of understanding my own present when it sees a glimpse of the aspirational in someone else. I definitely aspire to more traveling! The writing would be the healthy side effect.
I definitely wonder, esp on a beautiful fall day like this, when I am ‘traveling’ to an out of the way Starbucks, what it would happen if I unclipped from the career-me and allowed the writer-me to drive the car. It would probably take further than 100km, and all of that distance is in my own mind, but it would certainly be a coming home of sorts (ironically ha).
I do love the interesting way this conversation has helped me to do some impromptu re-evaluating and re-organising of my plan for my vision. I don’t even know if this makes sense, but the scary parts of writing the Homeopathy blogs is suddenly easier because it’s WAY fun-scarier to imagine what my life would be if I let the success of the Homeopathy blog feed the future success of my writing.
I mean, honestly, the definition of success for my writing, is just simply the luxury of the time to write. The product, or the written result, is the bonus.
So much gratitude for this exchange my friend xo
