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she's back again, this time only after a few months off El Sal. the urge begins, the rationalization, the what do you think abouts....the we really need to check on our land (um, yeah. it's land. you know, sitting on the earth. what is there to check?) the places we need to go before we end up in Belize.
the talks on our porch about a year on the road, the hows, the whens, the bargains we make with ourselves aching to escape the familiar and wander dusty food stalls and listen to a sitar on the side of the road. the things we want to teach M. climbing mountains. sleeping with bedbugs. foreign beer. warm water. beans. cold showers. old buses. backpacks. red dirt. curry. feeling most alive when we are slightly terrified. negotiations, compromises, guilt, acquiescence, passion, hunger, barter, desire. sacrifice, enlightenment.
dammit, wanderlust.
Monday, May 14, 2007
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38 comments:
The most liberating of all the taskmasters, that wanderlust. I have it too, in ethereal ways. I wish to wander my own body at 13 again, talk myself out of all of my bad decisions.
Then someday, someday a walk in Spain while I write words that will fit between two covers, to be bolstered by a spine. Damn that wanderlust.
I certainly understand wanderlust. As one who has moved across the country on an impulse because the hunger was so strong, I understand.
And there are days recently when I have missed Thailand so much, it hurts physically.
Oh, yeah. I understand. :)
I love this about you, because I have no wanderlust at all. The way it makes you see things is wonderful, I love the insight.
We both have wanderlust too. When it was just the girl it was easy to indulge- a month here a week there. But our wanderlust has been grounded until the boy outgrows his food allergies. He can't be more than 1/2 hour from a hospital ER. Not to mention language barriers when ordering food. Sigh. I guess I'll just live vicariously through you for now.
Aaahhhhhh, yes. I feel it too. We find ourselves with a surprisingly commitment free summer and are giddy with the possibilities. If the exchange rate was not so dismal right now we would be taking our boys to Europe. We've always wanted to. No matter though, the earth is a big place.
It's been far too long since I have been able to indulge my wanderlust. I am stoked.
greece.
i want to go to greece.
someday.
No wanderlust whatsoever in me, sadly. Or not sadly. When you write your book about your travels, I'll read it somewhat wistfully while sitting on the swing in my backyard, everything around me known and familiar.
'feeling most alive when we are slightly terrified.'
yup, that's it right there. I'm excited to see where you're off to next.
Wanderlust; first cousin to the things I didn't say. Bastards, the whole family.
I have a bad case of the wanderlust myself.
I'm dying to go to Europe. I just need to get over my highly irrational fear of flying first. So when I read about your wanderlust, I think GO FOR IT, because then I can travel vicariously through you and not need to board a plane.
I've been having a bad case of wanderlust myself for quite a while now. I still it by thinking about how it actually feels to be anywhere else. I don't like strange beds and to be without my piano and books.
But I'll probably go to Paris in September. Can you believe I never went there? I only just found out that from where I live it takes less time to go to Paris by train than to visit my parents...
I only get wanderlust for big cities but I adore reading about your adventures and I'll cherish the letters I receive from you when you finally are living in Belize (like how I include myself in your list of people to write to?)
Can't wait to hear where you and J go next.....
Oh, man, I feel it too. I was in a conference last week and felt this overwhelming anxiety and the sense that I had to get out there, travel and do some good work along the way before I fall into the trap of wanting to be comfortable all the time.
I have an excellent solution for you, though. Up here, we have the following: climbing mountains. sleeping with bedbugs (i'm sure we could find some for you). foreign beer. warm water. beans. cold showers. old buses. backpacks. red dirt (Yay PEI!) . curry.
All that and it's close AND there are free accomodations in many cities across this swell country...I think, anyway. I suppose I can only speak for myself.
Sound tempting?
Great adventures to share with your wee one and the love of your life... and we can taste the wanderlust... we truly can...
I have just received a post card from a friend of mine who understands completely...However he has never found a soul mate to share it with...I wrote a blog about him... By next year...
He will have cycled the entire world... with the exception of Antarctica... I just received a post card from Pakistan where my him and he is cycling to the 'cooler climbs' of the Hindu Kush Pamir and Karakoram Mountain Ranges... all by himself with only his friends who are land locked to share it with... and we, remain dreaming and tasting his wanderlust... and she is a true bitch...
I often wonder if my own wanderlust isn't maybe me wanting to run away and start over again.
While I truly love being immersed in other cultures and learning new things, and there are several parts of the world where I wish I could live for a while, somewhere deep inside I wonder if it is at least partially driven by the dissatisfaction I somewhat have with the life I live here and now. Like the pressures of daily life would just vanish if I lived somewhere else.
Could your untimely wanderlust be tied to the soul searching you've been doing lately about your vocation?
I have wandered. I have lusted. Now I am planted firmly here. It doesn't mean I still don't want to go places. I just don't yearn for them the way I used to. And, you know, I've never rally had that Latin American yearning that you have. India, South America, Europe...
Dear Louise,
I wish I could drive on down there and pick you up right now. But I can't. Hang on to the dream baby.
Love, Thelma
Can one ever get over it? I'm always wondering about the next trip, the new food, the people, the photos I can create. Maybe that's why I don't pay as much attention to my house as I should -- too busy thinking of where to go next.
I don't have this wanderlust like she lives in you. I love traveling (just not on business) but part of that is the joy of coming home.
You need to be places, though. And I can see it, feel it through you.
I used to have it. Travelling with T before the kids was wonderful. We have some dear friends who took a year off and wandered the world and I so envied them BUT...while I love to travel, I also love to come home.
But the wanderlust still hits me ocassionally. It doesn't help that the in-laws are currently wandering Eastern Europe and heading to Greece for a couple of months. SO jealous.
I just started planning a camping/backpacking trip to Wyoming next year. So far the only person going is me.
I hear you on this count for sure.
Ah, my friend, as you well know, I am well in the grip of wanderlust. And that wonderful list at the end both inspires me and means a great deal to me. Foreign beer (I particularly like Tusker in Kenya, but probably more for the name and the label than anything else). Beans (I could eat 'em every day of my life). Warm water (swimming in it...El Salvador's beaches are perfect). And red dirt aliveness. (I'm going to pass on the bedbugs, though!)
Sigh.
I don't think it ever really goes away either. For now, I console myself with buying too many travel narratives and looking forward to my train trip--yes, insane--to Chicago.
Not enough, but for the very near future, all I have.
Wanderlust is a harsh mistress, and she just won't be ignored.
Looking forward to seeing where you go next.
You will wander yet, Jen. And until you do, close your eyes and let your imagination walk you around the world and back.
can I be your sherpa? I'll even offer up my strong teen. I want out of here for a while! (or longer).
I think it's kinda funny that the ad on your sidebar says "Refresh Your Spirit". Hmmmm . . .
I don't think the places we love and find beauty in ever leave us. It is important to have those dreams, for without them - well, that just isn't right. :)
Carrie
There is a lot to be said about travelling around without a plan with just a backpack...such a liberating feeling.
Altho' I'd hold off on teaching M. about foreign beers for a bit longer... ;-)
I've been bitten by it too.
I am filled with wanderlust, too. We have No Plans this summer and it's hard to think that this time last summer we were getting ready for our great adventure.
Sigh.
Hmmm...wanderlust has started to afflict me a bit now that single life is impending. All of a sudden I'm thinking, yeah, I could go teach yoga in Costa Rica for a month or so and tote the kids...why the hell not? No one here to tell me no.
go, girl!
Now is the time to do it.
She's FAR more flexible than either of you; She's not yet in school; There are other people out there with their kids; Healthcare is out there and a lot cheaper...
Go. Live your dreams. What's to regret?
you write it beautifully.
and though i know the post wasn't meant to tweak my funnybone, and i see the bittersweetness in the lust, i particularly laughed at the proximity of "things we want to show M" and "foreign beer." oh yeh. babies love them some o' that. couldn't keep O outta the real Budvar in Praha! :)
erm...i mean, he thought the bottles were pretty.
it is a need that must be fed, else it takes up all the space around you and makes you blind to it. go, if you can. i want to see Belize through your eyes.
oh, and yes, as Sage mentioned in her public service announcement for Canada, PEI has red dirt. and i'm sure i could scrounge up some bedbugs for ya if i just forget to change the sheets awhile longer...
canada has been looking better and better to me this past year. you all keep tempting me and you might just end up with a threesome on your doorstep.
Did you say curry?
I guess I know what I'm having this week now.
And what you type--so true. I have a constant inner thrum, urging me to get on with it.
it's been the thing i will most regret that i did not do enough of before i was saddled, yes, saddled with the burden of adult responsibility. i will regret it to the end of my days.
and i will pretend to not know that regret,
but i will fail at that pretense.
anyway, miss jen, i know. i dig. i commiserate.
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