I’ve been reviewing my travel plans for the next year or so, and I think my three planned trips might get trimmed down to two.
First of all, it’s quite the new thing for me to even be planning any travel at all. I’ve just never traveled much, not a big vacation person. Not for a lack of desire, but more a lack of opportunity. I’ve always been turned off by the idea of traveling alone, and as I so rarely have anyone to travel with, this has left me few options. I’ve been getting over this, exploring the more independent side of my personality. I like to do so many other things on my own, so why not traveling? Plus, who knows who I might meet out there in that big, unexplored world? I think the trip to California last year was a major trigger for this, it felt so good to get away from home for a few days, even if it was just a business trip. Add in the fact that I met one of the most amazing people I’ve ever been blessed enough to know on that trip, and I’m feeling kinda motivated. *grin*
The first trip I had planned was renting a cabin for a weekend some time this spring. Take a personal meditative retreat. Take a box of rice and some tea for sustenance and a notebook/sketchpad to fill with thoughts and ideas, and spend a couple days exploring my mind and psyche. Poke around in places I usually don’t go and see what happens. Maybe take a couple of Buddhist books and fill the iPod with ZenCasts, just to help re-center and get back on track if I slip up and drift off the path while I’m there, but really just go for the solitude of it all.
That’s the one I’m thinking of putting off for now, probably postpone it until fall. I’m really off-track as far as the mindfulness and meditation go right now, so I’m concerned I’ll just end up napping and staring at the wall all weekend and not get any of the intended introspection and meditation done. I really need to get re-centered in this regard first, I definitely think I’ll spend some time over the forthcoming holiday weekend doing the same thing, just not to the degree that I had planned.
Trip number two is a more formal weekend retreat. There’s a couple I’ve been looking at, but I’m probably going to one in mid-July at a place outside of Denver. That particular retreat is a poetry/writing workshop, applying Buddhist and meditative practice to creativity. Which could be very much what I need right now to help my lagging creativity. It couldn’t hurt, right? I’ve been wanting to go on one of these retreats for several months now, and I think this just might be the perfect opportunity. Even better, my friend Melissa (who lives in the Denver area) is thinking about attending too! It would be wonderful to share the experience with her, as well as just get to see her again and spend a few days catching up and re-connecting. But, we’ll see. She’s still undecided, and I kinda suspect she’ll disappoint me and not go. *shrug*
Finally, the big one. As my feet have never left this continent in the thirty-six (coming up on thirty-seven) years they’ve walked the Earth, it’s time to change that. I’ve found a hiking tour of Nepal that I very much want to go on. The more appealing option lasts a little over two weeks and would take me to base camp at Mt. Everest, but I fear I won’t be able to take that much time off work. If that’s the case, there’s a shorter option that’s a only a week, so I can pull it off one way or the other. I’d like to go this fall, but I suspect it’ll have to wait until next spring. One way or another, I’ll get out into the world!
So, there you have it. I’ve made the basic plans, now I just need to stick with them!