As we near the end of the year, have you been anywhere new over the past few months? Maybe you have revisited familiar haunts or have sought out new places. Travelling and exploring places that are different from your normal environs brings curiosity, expansion of thoughts, wonderment and perspective.
I’ve been lucky enough to travel to Chile this year – from the Atacama Desert to the fertile lands of central Chile and onwards south to Patagonia with its granite peaks and spectacular Condors.
I love travelling – seeing things for the first time, experiencing the different sounds and smells, hearing other languages spoken and getting to know the culture and history of the place.
I’m not a city person so I tend to gravitate towards landscapes and wildlife – the more vast and desolate the better. It is here that I can truly appreciate the beauty and power of our Earth and try to understand how our ancestors survived and thrived in harsh conditions. Whilst, currently, looking at the present struggle of wildlife caught up in our changing climate.
In places such as Patagonia there is a sense of perspective, how such a tiny dot as me fits into the vastness of the place. Being such a small part in the history of our planet also means sharing the responsibility of keeping our Earth safe and healthy. In the Southern ice fields of Chile just 20 years ago glaciers were receding about 12 foot each year, now it is over a 100 feet annually.
It is easy to feel overwhelmed and helpless with the “heaviness” of depressing news and destruction but we can also choose to be part of making small differences, part of a being collective of raised consciousness and awareness.
We don’t need to travel oversees to appreciate beauty and marvel at the world around us. Just getting away to somewhere new for a few days and taking time to stop and be aware or to see things with “new” eyes can bring about a new perspective.
Travel allows us to learn and to appreciate what we already have, not to take things for granted. Travel in our own country or further afield gives us that opportunity to wander and wonder at the beauty and generosity of our Earth.