Travel Blogger Tales Adventure Awaits
As I read among the many astonishing stories posted by Travel Blogger Tales intrepid travellers, I am often stirred in a profound way, and reminded of the countless journeys I myself have taken, beginning long, long ago (kinda like Star Wars), however, all within this galaxy, and within this lifetime!
I read of our shared sense of ‘wanderlust’, of how so many who now travel because they ‘must’, in they are compelled, or driven perhaps, or simply and honestly answering a Voice within themselves that none other can hear, and in answering that call, feel no hesitation while packing a carry-on, a backpack or booking flights, or hailing a train. 
Which is where this story may begin:
Trains.
My family moved to the Washington DC area while my Mother was expecting me. It was a long way back then, from New Jersey, with 4 boys in the car, and Mama anticipating my arrival. How hard it must have been, I muse at times, to leave her family and friends, to sever her network of love and support, launching into a new life, driven by work opportunity for my Father. And while the car ride may have been only 6 or 7 hours back in the early 1950’s, surely with the change in scenery and climate, it may well have seemed a destination beyond this world.
My Father used to tell me once they arrived at the new home he had chosen for them all, when they all walked in, my dear Mother, 5 months pregnant, sat down on the living room floor and wept. Maybe not inconsolably, as she was a very pragmatic, energetic and hard working woman, but I suspect now, as I am grown and well into my 60’s, she may have been overcome by the overwhelming task ahead of her: to start a new home, far from ‘home’.
Later in the tales, I will tell you all how magnificently she managed it all!!
So, perhaps, for me, my own deep-seated ‘wanderlust’ was ingrained from as early as when I was in utero, certainly my need to travel, to keep moving, to learn what’s ‘out there’ has been so deeply a part of me, I have never been able to separate it from ‘who’ I think I am!
And perhaps I was a challenging child to raise as a result of that sense of resisting, even resenting, being cooped up, or feeling limited by the circumstances I was in. It is not a topic that ever came up in our family.
But the bonus was, I was sent often to stay with relatives, and especially my dear Grandma, who would travel the rails to come down and pick me up, take me back to her home in Jersey. In her generosity, I was given a chance to explore, my Mother was given a chance to settle, and my Grandma had a wee companion to enjoy, to train, and to drink tea with!! I do recall trips in the car, my Father driving, when I was given a choice to stay with Grandma or to come home after the visit, but it is all a seemingly long time ago now, and I was young, so I cannot say for certain what my decisions were, or why I made them.
What I do remember clearly is even as a child, my views were always to see what’s new, to see Light in all its magnificence, as it plays over the water, as it comes from above to light up trees and flowers and grass, as it changes from soft to blinding and as it settles down the closing of each day. And of being aware of Light, even in the nighttime, when the stars were so bright, and the meteors were shooting through the skies. When the lightning bugs were everywhere and we caught them in jars, but only for a little while, before setting them free again.
Free to shed Light everywhere we fly, or land, or set down to rest, that is what I think travel bloggers are seeking, what drives us, what fulfills and endows us with a sense of wonder and delight!
To be continued….
