Invest or Not to Invest

As I sit here winding up one chapter and beginning an new chapter, I am anxious, apprehensive, sad, excited, want to run explore, want to roll up into a ball. Overall, I am an emotional wreck inside. On the one hand, I am ready to be home for more than a week for the first time in 18 months. On the other hand, the packing and driving again into the unknown is not desirable. The week of transition is always challenging.

As my Dad said during one of the many transitions, it is all about choices. I have chosen the transitory lifestyle for now. With that comes the  "drama" of change.  With a personality of liking patterns, control, knowing what the future hold, this always prove a challenge. The dichotomy of the excitement of forging the unknown and the difficulty of leaving the comfort of a the known can become an addicting combination. I will attempt to share some of the "drama" of a traveler's lifestyle.

Traveling to rural areas often means the locals have not had or taken the opportunity to travel far, but they know all the ins and outs of the place. This strong foundation provides a wonderful resource for finding the best local stores, restaurants, hiking spots, etc.  It, however, also provides an interesting dynamic for relationships. With the choice of meeting and befriending people, one also chooses saying "see you later" at some point.  Despite trying to not become  "too close," there are always a few relationships that grow deeper than I realize. No matter how much I try to protect my heart and the hearts of others from the pain of leaving, I end up giving a piece of my heart. I have left pieces of my heart with many different ages, nationalities, ethnicities, and places. Leaving these knowing that the relationships as they are will never be exactly the same and recognizing the fact I may not seem them again is the bitter part.

The is the sweet part, however,  "Bird of a feather flock together." This saying is true even for people with the traveling bug bite. People to travel dive past the pleasantries of small talk and find a commonality that leads to a quick friendship. Everywhere I have gone, I have met people from other countries than the one where we are currently located. Special conversations and experiences lead to friendships that continue through phone calls, emails, facebook, and skype when there is internet fast enough. Meeting new people and seeing things different than my daily life expands the heart. Learning new skills, honing old skills, learning new cultures, learning new interests and discovering new dreams. My heart must currently require some more expanding.

Another scene of this drama is the truth that life goes on without you. As much as we would like to think we can pick up where we left off, this is not possible. This is no one's fault; it is just a phenomenon of life. It is even a law of physics. An object in motion will remain in motion until acted upon by an outside force.  While time marches on at "home" without you, you are marching to a beat of a different drum. Just like in a symphony, there are times in life we are soloists. There are other times we all are playing the composition together. I, also, like to think of life as a woven tapestry. We are all  moving, growing, learning at different rates, times, and ways. Our lives run parallel for awhile and perpendicular for awhile. Keeping up with communication allows for the parallel times to be as seamless as possible making it feel like picking up where you left off.

Well, there you have it some of the aspects of a traveling lifestyle that no one shares with you when you sign up. The more, I think about it though, it is the difficult parts of anyone's life. Nothing stays the same even if you are still living in the same house in the same town. People come and go out of our lives. To invest in relationships or not to invest. My heart has been molded and changed in ways I could not have imagined or foreseen by investing in people. Therefore, I chose to continue to invest. Investing wisely, that is, in order to be a good steward of my heart.