Mental Munchies: Thoughts to chew on while you travel

I’ve been spending a lot of time uncomfortable in Indonesia this month. I confess to being a bit burnt out, a bit gritchy about the things I generally have a sense of humor about (taxi drivers and touts at the top of the list). We flew to Bali for some R&R and to eat our weight in salad for a week or so. It’s helping.

I’ve been on the road long enough to know that there are cycles, as with any other life. There are times of wonder and wild enthusiasm. There are doldrums. There are storms and seasons of discontent too. It’s all part of the journey, and when I’m discontent, I’m learning that it’s a time to look inward, and ask some fundamental questions about why: it’s almost always on the inside, not the externals.

The other thing I’ve learned is that the antidote is often to feed my mind and water my soul with big thoughts and deep questions. Here are a few of the quotes I’ve been chewing on this week as I seek to turn the tide of my current discontent:

“When we get out of the glass bottle of our ego and when we escape like the squirrels in the cage of our personality and get into the forest again, we shall shiver with cold and fright. But things will happen to us so that we don’t know ourselves. Cool, unlying life will rush in.” – D.H. Lawrence

“A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it.” – John Steinbeck

“What you’ve done becomes the judge of what you’re going to do – especially in other people’s minds. When you’re traveling, you are what you are right there and then. People don’t have your past to hold against you. No yesterdays on the road.” William Least Heat Moon

“I travel light. I think the most important thing is to be in a good mood and enjoy life, wherever you are.” — Diane von Furstenberg

It isn’t the mountain ahead that wears you out; it’s the grain of sand in your shoe. — Robert W. Service

Posted by | Comments (4)  | February 5, 2013
Category: Travel Quote of the Day, Vagabonding Life


4 Responses to “Mental Munchies: Thoughts to chew on while you travel”

  1. Matt Says:

    Or how about, “I traveled the world and the only thing I found was myself.” something like that.

  2. DEK Says:

    Matt, I think that is most true when you travel by yourself. In Rivers Amazon, Alex Shoumatoff remarks on the tremendous amount of private mental activity that goes on in your head when you travel by yourself to remote parts of the world.

  3. gabi Says:

    I love the sand quote jenn. Yes, and I love your reflective wise side. I, too, entering our third year of non-stop travel (omg!), get that, the rhythm, the ups and downs, the time to look within, it’s always within. Even though this week, being homeless, injured, sick, and sun-stroked was outside, I’m sure it was reflective of some deep message within. I love you.