time & traveling

the quote in this blog's title comes from JRR Tolkien. traveling has been one of my great loves since I was 15. before that, I think I had only been on a plane once, to visit DC on an 8th grade trip. I feel like my life has been one great adventure since I got on the second plane of my life to go to Nepal 11 years ago... sometimes it has felt like progress has been made made a little at a time, as Tolkien suggests, at other times the progress seems to be of epic proportions in a short amount of time. It is dizzying to think that a few months ago I was graduating, and then I was in England... and now I'm in Florida with a place of my own getting to know St. Pete's. the past can seem so far away when the blur of transit has been rushing past you for months on end. now that I'm here in Florida, though, the blur slows to reveal daily life again... I'm reveling in not having to pack my bags every night :)

have you ever been asked whether you're a past, present, or future oriented kind of person? I'm pretty sure I'm future oriented. I realized the other day I don't tend to think about staying places. I tend to treat the places where I live as temporary, as stops along the way... as another albergue along the camino. I think there are both good things and bad things about that. the bad part is that I can end up acting like a tourist, as Amy Laura Hall warned us against at Duke Div. or I can come across as thinking I'm above daily, mundane life... which no one can avoid, no matter what stage of life or circumstances they are in... at least not eventually, even if they seem to be living their fantasy life. I think the good part is that being future-oriented can also make you purposeful and focused, if you can figure out how to bridge the distance between your present and the future that you envision. I'm still working on that... and grateful that I'm not on my own trying to craft the perfect plan to achieve my vision for my life. if anything, I look back and am amazed at how I ended up where I am. I would never dare explain how I got here as simply the fruit of my own efforts. surely there is a bigger plan, a greater vision, at work.