exploration

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Nyad just crossed swimming from Cuba to Florida
off her bucket list!
Yesterday I asked my Facebook friends what was on their bucket lists.

Many of the responses involved travel: New York, Paris, the ocean, London, the Grand Canyon, Bora Bora, a train ride across Canada... Mine involved travel as well: El Camino de Santiago.

I got to thinking: what is it that draws us to distant lands? To travel? To seeing and experiencing different people and cultures?

I'm not sure I really have an answer. Just a yearning to go, see, and do. Not because I don't love where I am (I'm actually a major homebody!) but because I don't want to limit my vision to my tiny neighborhood. There is so much more. And experiencing it, being part of it, enlarges my vision of the world, God, and myself. It may not change me, but it does deepen my understanding of me.

So maybe the answer to our longing for travel isn't about "going" somewhere, but about exploring more fully who we are.

Which would also explain some of my friends' other answers to my bucket list question: to build a house, write a book, start a brewery, run a half marathon, ride in a hot air balloon. These desired accomplishments invite us to explore what we are capable of. To face our fear of failure and move forward toward success.

The final answers from my friends to the bucket list question involved relationships: to have lunch with an old friend, see a child through college, renew wedding vows. These relationships invite us to explore how deep our wells of love can run, if we are willing to risk being vulnerable and put time into what really matters.

EMBRACE EXPLORATION.

What do your bucket list items say about you? What travels, accomplishments, and/or relationships have revealed the most to you about who you are?

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