Travel Inspiration

A graduation announcement came in the mail recently. Many of my friends have children who are achieving this milestone and it was a joy to open the envelope and share in the happiness of a young man who is destined for greatness.

The last grad I knew was a few years ago. I bought him a bag to use when he travels and delivered it with a quote that I love: Travel is the only thing you buy that makes you richer.

That memory got me thinking about other travel quotes I love. They inspire me, they make me laugh and they feed my wanderlust. 

I admire the Dalai Lama. He laughs his way through life despite challenges and trouble. He offers great pieces of advice … like this one: Once a year, go someplace you’ve never been.

Great authors, like Mark Twain and Ernest Hemingway, have written entire books that can inspire travel … and quotable lines like these:

Success expert Stephen Covey suggests: Live your life by a compass, not a clock. 

So many of us grew up with inspirations like this from Dr. Seuss.

Fourteenth century scholar and adventurer Ibn Battutu offers a quote that touches my soul: Travel leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller. 

I’m not only curious about other cultures, but am fascinated by languages. It thrills me to find words that don’t have English equivalents:

 — The German word Fernweh, for instance, means “An ache for distant places; missing places you have never been. A certain craving for travel.”

 — I can relate to the Swedes, who say, Resfeber. It means “The restless race of the traveler’s heart before the journey begins, when anxiety and anticipation are tangled together.”

 — This Danish word makes me sad even though I can TOTALLY relate to it: Onism. The frustration of being stuck in just one body that inhabits only one place at a time. In other words, you can’t see everything no matter how much you want to.

 — And speaking of foreign words, the Japanese say yoko meshi. It describes the stress of speaking a foreign language.

There’s a whole world out there just waiting to be explored. Find your inspiration, grab a bag and hit the road!

PS. Congratulations, Brady, on yet another step towards a monumental life. 

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