Not quite home yet! I spent a nice evening exhausting Kurt and Wendy with elephant stories and then slept for a couple of hours and woke up all wide-eyed and raring to go. Waited until after breakfast, though, and then had the 5 and 1/2 hour drive home ahead of me. It gave me ample time to think about what had just happened and whether it had been a valuable thing to do.
I remembered what Thoreau said about it's not being worth the while to travel around the world to count the cats in Zanzibar, and how I used to think he was right. Clearly there are many many wonderful experiences to be had in one's back yard (even if it ISN'T Walden Pond), and the wonder needs only to be cultivated and nurtured.
I'm pretty sure Henry David would have disapproved of this trip of mine. Not only are there plenty of experiences to be savored in MY back yard--which is, after all, a jewel among back yards--but there are also lots of suffering animals, lots of people struggling to scratch out a living, and loads of problems awaiting attention close to home. It's true: I did not NEED to go looking for problems as far off as remote Cambodia.
Yet, I thought the trip provided amazing value. For example, I felt so . . . . . well. ALIVE. As the current cliche goes, I had gone out--WAY out--of my comfort zone. With having virtually NO familiar sights around me, I was always hyper-aware. Maybe even a bit scared.
You know how sometimes you will settle into a routine, and eat an ordinary meal, watch the news, look at the paper and realize some minutes later that you can't remember WHAT you ate, how it tasted, what was on the news, what you read? You simply FORGOT what JUST happened!
Maybe it SHOULDN'T be that way, but at least for me, it sometimes just is. I start to take life for granted. This trip was a real jolt to my system, and I hope I can carry the lesson with me. Life must NOT be taken for granted. ALL experiences, large AND small, should be savored and appreciated.
I was so eager to get home. It was so good to see Scott's smiling face and Emma's wagging tail and hear Aramis's shrieks of delight. Our house and the river and the marsh. And I think I saw it all the more clearly and distinctly because of what I saw in Cambodia.
Were those the ONLY thoughts I could scrounge up? Of COURSE not! Don't go away! I'll be back!
Oh, and by the way, here's how a REAL writer talks about the value of travel: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/30/opinion/brooks-the-haimish-line.html?_r=4&partner=rss&emc=rss
Just another Zanzibar Cat that purrs with delight when he reads your posts. Thanks Ann.
ReplyDeleteI now know why I have enjoyed this blog so much. It's so amazing to watch /read about your journey to the center of your soul/inner self. Although this trip and all of it's adventures were sooo amazing in itself, I could actually see you becoming one with the elephants and your surroundings. Maybe it all started when you traded your malaria drugs in for a double dose of LIFE. That must be when you weren't scared anymore Which, by the way, I just couldn't envision you scared. I never really gave it much thought, but I would bet in a scary situation, I would be the first to scream. Although I can't say that my life has ever been "ordinary" I can say that many many (too many many) times I black out during a meal, while cleaning (yes I do that sometimes) even while driving. I hate the driving one, it suddenly gives you the feeling of being desperately lost. You are my inspiration my friend. I will never feel destitute again as long as I have a half bottle of water and the resident tums in my purse. Of course there is always the cell phone as a back up plan.
ReplyDeleteKudos to you, Ann, for your courage and compassion. What a marvelous adventure.
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