The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page. - Saint Augustine
Having something to look forward to is a great motivator.
Last weekend I went to the Travel and Adventure Show in Rosemont - a two day wanderlust fest where I picked up a ton of brochures, ideas and giveaways to add to my already overloaded files of places I want to visit.
Touring the many vendor booths from every state and what seemed like every country around the globe felt like a mini vacation in itself.
So, after filling several bags with books and brochures from all sorts of wonderful places, I am in the midst of planning a vacation or two. It's hard to decide where to go when one wants to go everywhere, but decide I must!
“The traveler sees what he sees. The tourist sees what he has come to see.” G.K. Chesterton
January in these parts can be a bleak affair. I recall exactly two half days of sunshine in the past three weeks. I would have to check on the accuracy of this assessment, but would guess it's pretty close. It's a perfect time to peruse all those glossy brochures filled with photos of sun splashed beaches, blue skies topping summer scenes of distant snow-capped mountains, and coat-less tourists sipping cool drinks on boats gliding along flower filled landscapes and quaint towns. Something to look forward to.
“Travel becomes a strategy for accumulating photographs”. Susan Sontag
That quote made me smile because that pretty much describes me. I have literally hundreds of photos, if not thousands. No. I know it's thousands. Capturing my experiences with my camera enables me to relive them again and again, and to share them with family, friends and anyone who reads my blogs. And hopefully to share some of the wonder and the pleasure I get from traveling and maybe motivate someone to take a trip - to somewhere I've been or to somewhere they have always wanted to go. Something to look forward to.
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” Mark Twain
I would like to think Mark Twain is right - people who travel for pleasure are open-minded. After all, they are going places to experience something other than what they see daily. To experience. I wish the whole world was open-minded and welcoming. I want to see places, and cultures and wonders, and not be afraid.
If you wish to travel far and fast, travel light. Take off all your envies, jealousies, unforgiveness, selfishness and fears. Cesare Pavese
That indeed sounds like the best way to travel.
As always, words and photos are my own, and require permission to reprint.
However, feel free to share the blog in it's entirety. In fact, I encourage it!
See more photos at http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/1-mauverneen-blevins.html
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