Tuesday, December 10, 2013

We are always traveling

The URL of this blog is "deunviaje.blogspot.com". "De un viaje" means "about a journey" in Spanish. I originally set this blog up to discuss living abroad and traveling to strange and exotic locales. However, the more I think about it, life in general is a great, mysterious viaje, and some of the most fascinating journeys take place in the most "mundane" of places.

Close to home, or far from it; we're always on some kind of trip. There is always the potential to see new things and learn from new experiences.

Sometimes it can be tough just to keep your eyes open. It's easy to forget about the crazy beauty of life going through the grind of the day-to-day, minute-to-minute, worry-to-worry travails of "adult life", or whatever life stage you might find yourself in. It's easy to close your eyes even when you might think you have them open.

Also, remember: maybe to you, your life and your life's physical settings are mundane or boring. But you never know how fascinating you can be to in someone else's eyes, or how much that person would kill to be in your shoes. Not just to have what you have, but to see what you see, to walk on the street that you walk on.

I get wrapped up in how "hard" and "boring" and "mundane" and "non-stimulating" my life is. Northern Virginia is not AndalucĂ­a; Falls Church is not Oslo. But you know what: this is all a journey, and there is Machiavellian intrigue and lives and stories and people and beautiful little corners of streets and hidden gems just like anywhere else at any line of latitude or longitude on Earth.

It is easy for me, and maybe for some of you, to get caught up in what we don't have. But perhaps, to quote a wiser man than myself: all that you have is, in fact, all that you need.

Here are some pictures of home, from environs both near and far.
























Where have you been today?