I seem to operate from this place that says that travel is a must do. It is not okay to stay in your comfort zone at home when there are places to go and people to see. If you look at the magazines while waiting in the checkout line, they are all about the places you MUST visit or the resorts that will save your marriage or the towns that will recharge you and make you willing to go to work the rest of the year. If you visit FaceBook, so many of the posts are about, "Look! Here I am in Atlanta!" or "Waiting to board in Dallas! Off to the Galapagos!" or 'Whew! What a fabulous trip to Morocco! Can't wait to tour downtown Salt Lake City next year!" Travel, travel , travel - it is what adventurous people do. It is what cool people do. It is what you are supposed to do.
Don't get me wrong. I have seen Europe, Asia, and South America. I love to wander around iconoclastic big cities - NYC, Boston, Seattle, Portland, Washington DC. I do enjoy getting out of my comfort zone and learning and expanding my horizons. Just in my own way. I've been thinking about two types of travel: inner and outer travel. These days I am especially intrigued with inner travel. The places I go in my head are fascinating and often very real to me. I generally go to these places at night or when painting or writing. These journeys are not the kind of thing one typically posts on FaceBook
or gushes about when standing around the water cooler with coworkers. They are, however, exciting places. Inner travel can be highly unpredictable, relatively inexpensive and can open doors you didn't even know were there. Outer travel is the more obvious travel route - the kind of travel that is concrete and measurable. The kind that involves passports, TSA agents, money, novelty in surroundings and people. The kind that the culture says is cool and essential. The kind of travel that people should do in order to live a rich life and to fully experience the world .
So what kind of travel do you prefer? It doesn't have to be a black and white thing - it can be a little of both. Have you recently traveled somewhere? Was it inner or outer travel? Got plans?
