As Valentine’s Day approaches, love is on my mind. In the US, chocolate and roses are flying off the shelves. Lovers are delivering carefully selected cards signed with love and presented with kisses. Intimate meals, just for two, are being planned.
In our home, love is an everyday celebration. We are constantly on the lookout for ways to spend time with each other. So Valentine’s Day, for me, is a reason to embrace all the other things I love … especially travel.
The age old question lovers ask each other popped into my head, “Why do you love me?” If travel could ask me that, how would I answer?
Travel touches me deep in my soul. I have always spent my time looking for new and exciting things. Spontaneity is good for doing that, but travel is great! New cultures provide smells and flavors, sounds and sights guaranteed to widen my eyes and test my ability to capture the experience for memories and to share.
The idea of meeting new people, being challenged to communicate with someone who doesn’t speak English, and sharing moments that bring smiles and foster understanding makes my heart beat faster and my smile brighten. Trying to interpret signs in foreign languages is a sure way to laugh with fellow travelers. Even in the states, making new friends, even just for an evening, makes traveling to new places exciting.
Feeling an icy breeze from an arctic storm or the balmy heat of a tropical breeze are equally enticing. Bundling up and wandering a Christmas market under a gently falling snow is as much fun as climbing into a kayak and paddling through a mangrove.
I love road trips and train trips. I relish the feeling of the wind in my face on a sailboat or sneaking peeks of the ground 35 thousand feet below me from the window seat of an airplane. Why? Because no matter how I travel, I know I’m headed off on a new adventure.
I love the memory of the earthy scent of a just-brushed horse or the fresh, ripe aroma of vegetables in an Italian marketplace.
I nurture the dreams of upcoming trips and continue to add to my never-ending wanderlust bucket list, feeding my love of looking ahead and reaching for the future. As you think of love, remember to think of more than a special someone.
There’s a whole world out there waiting to be explored. Fall in love with the excitement of adventure.
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