South American Thoughts

When I travel to new places I like to bring back something. Not in the way of trinkets or souvenirs, (though I have acquired these) but more like lessons, realizations, or the occasional epiphany. In foreign lands it doesn’t take much to stumble along one of these. That is, if your eyes are truly open and you are actively looking, not just passively watching. There is a subtle yet significant difference. When you travel to new places (and really wherever you’re going) you must take your eyes off the street and look at the people, their land, their culture, in order to understand.

I travel with the ecological slogan, “Take only memories, leave only footprints.” There have been many of both. My travels to the South Pacific and Europe were both learning experiences as was my most recent trip to South America. Venezuela and Ecuador were, respectively, the thirtieth and thirty-first countries that I have stepped foot in (compared to a paltry seventeen states). It is only nineteen countries short of my goal (and thirty-three states short). I have the obligatory list of ‘things to do in my lifetime’ that enumerates the essential accomplishments I must achieve (that is an essay in itself). My list is not hypothetical, not just in my mind; it is actually typed out and in want of checkmarks after each entry. South America was the latest check.

I was gone two weeks, though I wish it could have been longer. So what did I ‘bring back?’ It’s nothing new to humanity or even me, and probably not you. It’s just a reminder to myself that I am passing along to y’all. And it is simply this: live in the present. Learn from the past and use those experiences to shape a malleable future. It sounds so straightforward. But it’s hard, especially after college when thoughts of careers, responsibilities, and even potential spouses, cloud an already clouded mind that has a proclivity to think about tomorrow and yesterday rather than just today.

We have to remind ourselves that we can’t live in the past, though we may want to. Do you find yourself doing this? I am the biggest offender of that piece of advice. I have all the photo albums under the bed along with a box of old letters and an even older box of ‘love’ letters from days gone passed that I visit regularly like an appointment. I like the way things were. They were simple. I wonder why they can’t be the same forever. And the answer to that is…we grow up and change. In the process of that occurring we learn to live on, love on, and move on.

I lounged in a hammock shaded by a grass hut roof surrounded by green hills, coconut trees, and the inviting, blue Pacific Ocean lapping onto the gray sand before me. I was living in the moment. My friend had made me a CD before I left that I wasn’t to listen to until I was on a beach. I figured it was the appropriate time. While I bobbed my head listening to the rhythmic compilation of soothing trance tracks, I thought of some of the beaches that I have been on in my life: those in Surfer’s Paradise, Australia; Mana, Fiji; the French and Italian Rivieras; the Greek Islands; Cabo San Lucas, Mexico; Southern Cal and now in Atacames, Ecuador. I tried to keep my eyes open when I listened to the CD in an attempt to paint the landscape in my mind because I knew the next time I listened to that CD my eyes would be closed and my feet would be on concrete. I wanted that image burnt on the back of my eyelids forever. And it is. All the while discerning the difference between living in the past and simply remembering it.

So I long to live in the present, as challenging as it may be, and avoid living for the future (that is very different from preparing for the future, which is imperative). If one lives for only the future then someday they will realize it is the future and all the precautions that they took resulted in not living to the fullest in the present tense while passing up valuable opportunities for living and loving. May I never utter these rueful words, “I wish I would have done that when I was younger and had the chance.”

It has been an expensive road, but was well worth it. Sure, I’m currently unemployed which has led to a little stress (maybe the reason for the three gray hairs) but, man, I’ve been around the world. I’ve been on five of the seven continents. I’ve seen things people only dream about. I give thanks for my innumerable blessings. Things will work out. Patience is a virtue and something I have an abundance of.

I am writing at my desk while gazing at the lavender wall (not my color choice) and the world map that is tacked onto it, visualizing all the places I have been. People ask me, “Where are you going next?” To that I must sadly reply, nowhere soon. I wonder quite often where the next adventure will take me. I have delusions of working in Australia, studying in Peru, and volunteering in Africa, among others. But before I can taste travel once again I must pay The Man. He’s always keeping a brotha down. But He can never discourage a dreamer!

“The traveler sees what he sees, the tourist sees what he has come to see.”

G.K. Chesterton