Why would we tuck away money in a worn and creased envelope labeled "World Travel" in the bottom drawer of our filing cabinet for seven years? Why did we quit our good jobs that allowed us to take Fridays off sometimes only to throw ourselves out into the wild blue yonder of millennial-style travel? Because we wanted to play like we did when we got our homework done. We wanted to learn the way immigrants are forced to. We wanted to dream dreams we've been to scared to utter out loud. We are are either too young or not practiced enough at playing, learning, and dreaming within the everyday humdrum to do this well at home, so we needed to GO. We also wanted time, space, and inspiration to free ourselves to do those those things. Like the go to sleep after reading for hours and wake up on our crinkly camp pad mattress at 10:12am for six days straight type of time. We were growing restless of the busyness and productivity. We weren't dissatisfied with life, but we wanted to taste and see more and to taste and see differently.
Shortly after we got engaged in 2009, we set a goal to take a long term overseas trip together before we had children. We each had been impacted by long term travel before. At age 18 Brooke got malaria, had to steal a satellite phone and climb to the top of a mountain to escape modern day slavery (okay, slight exaggeration), and spent 6 months working with a drop-in center for kiddos in Africa. After a year he describes as "the slow death of my soul" studying business in college, Bobby fled to the other side of the world and quickly got hurt doing something stupid, was confronted with a major identity crisis, and co-led a team while abroad for 8 months in New Zealand and southeast Asia. After travel, we were different and changed people. We wanted to allow that same growth and development to encounter us together as a married partnership.
There are many styles and motivations behind chosen travel. We scrapped all our impulses to put a cause behind our travel. We aren't solely doing humanitarian or religious work, we aren't running or moving from anything, and we aren't starting a business. We are simply traveling because we want to, and hoping that along the way, our perspective shifts and we see people differently. As we travel, everything we experience, taste and see is changing us. If we could write the ending, eventually we'll go back to our neighborhood and beloved Colorado Springs community overflowing with whimsy, hope for humanity, and newfound vision for investment (extract money from this word and you approach the type of investment we refer to here).
There is something magical and healing about play. The freedom and creativity sparked by play can shift the tides of life. Climbing, fishing, laughing, cooking - for much of this trip, we're simply experiencing the joy of travel! We have to believe that there are little deposits made in us each time we play or experience the wild world. Like when the Albanian immigrated Italian man grabs Bobby's arms with rough, overworked hands (we met him in Italy and he took us to the best pizza shop in town, coincidently owned by his brother), looks us in the eye and says, "It's not about the money. Make money to live. Do not live to make money. It's about your health." These earnests make us better people and directly translate to a more loving, engaged, and positive life. In the words of Larry Howard, if a little fun is good, a lot is better!
Travel does something else, too. It helps us see the ocean of possibilities in life. This is true of the big things, like the possibilities of careers, education, and lifestyles, but it seems even more true for the infinitely vast possibilities of the small things. Like how Canada includes firewood cut from dead trees at campsites, or how Austria does parental leave, or the way windows open in Iceland, or how electricity is cheaper in the night in Italy, or how potatoes are harvested in Switzerland. There are so many different ways to do things; we don't have it all figured out. The knowledge of this itself gives us humility and drive.
We've got a strong value for personal and corporate reflection. Typically this looks like squeezing in a run early in the morning or hiking to the top of a peak nearby only to slip into reflection accidentally. It is in moments like these we ponder why we live and think the way we do. This trip provides not only the time but the distance to honestly reflect on our lives. Are we making decisions that honor the type of people we want to become? Are we eating with our worldview of animals, the ground, and our bodies in mind? Why do we spend our time this way or that? The thousands of miles, the mountain summits and ferratas, the language barriers, and the lack of rhythms and comforts are providing a safe and genuine space to step back and stare towards our lives in Colorado.
Finally, dreaming. A good dream while asleep will shake you the whole day if it's genuinely vivid and wakes you before the alarm. All the more when it comes to you during the day. This trip, we hope to put some feet to dreams we've had and may encounter. Partnerships around foster care, conversations of outdoor adventure guiding, dreams of travel hostels not quite ripe for the harvesting; whatever the case, dreams are a theme of our trip, and we are eager to nurture these while we're away. The world is a great incubator for ideas that can't float in small water.
While we don't feel sent necessarily, we do feel like the heartbeats and breaths we are given each day are divine and championed by a Love greater than we can yet know. With this in mind, everything becomes significant. Each conversation and interaction with the world - people, plants, mountains, bugs, food - it all is meaningful, real, and alive. What we can learn from it, how it causes us to reflect, the ways we create and foster fun and dare to dream dreams - this is up to us!
"This is what life is about. It is being sent on a trip by a loving God, who is waiting at home for our return and is eager to watch the slides we took and hear about the friends we made. When we travel with the eyes and ears of the God who sent us, we will see wonderful sights, hear wonderful sounds, meet wonderful people ... and be happy to return home." Henri Nouwen