I have a travel companion, I have a place to sleep for the first four days, I have arrangements and hopes to cross paths with family and friends as I go, and I have an estimated route that, I imagine, will only become a ‘final draft’ once my feet land again in Indiana on December 21. Otherwise, the single plan I hold is to explore and to discover, to learn and to pay attention as I walk a portion of this world.
I, the Type A, color-coded list master, learned-to-make-a-spreadsheet-when-she-was-seven, planner of all planners, am setting off to let the path unfold as I take each step and for the world to unfold before my open eyes as I do so. And sometimes the thought of that comes with some growing pains (and probably some worry pains for my parents), but more so, there exists in me a steady, peaceful chorus quietly reminding me of Mary Oliver’s words when she said “still, what I want in life is to be willing to be dazzled”. That voice calls out to my soul, whispering of all this life has to teach me, urging me to go, and, no matter what shape the route takes, to be wherever that my feet land, calling it ‘here’.
We aren’t carrying much with us, but we are carrying twenty-five pounds of belongings rolled into a backpack (including a pair of walking boots, a notebook, and peanut butter for me); we’re carrying a friendship marked by sometimes-brutal honesty, a shared desire to dance at almost all times, and a commitment to curiosity, a friendship that has remained since our first day of college, through journeys to Kenya and beyond, together and apart, and with constant conversation; we’re carrying a great mindfulness of and gratitude for the great privilege it is to be able to walk out of that airport in London tomorrow and to fill each of the next 100 days through wandering and wondering; we’re carrying a consideration for the many other journeys, of many kinds, that will take place simultaneous to ours, those overlapping and crossing and unknown and never to touch at all; we’re carrying questions about the ease at which we will enter this adventure while, very near to us, so many others are suffering and dying as they fight to do the same, questions about what, truly, is needed to live well and to live whole, questions about how to love this world; we’re carrying an agreement “to learn as much as we possibly can and to commit ourselves to using this time of exploration to bettering ourselves as humans so that we continue from this journey contributing good”; we’re carrying our families and friends and those who have walked alongside us, our presence spanning distance and their love and wisdom sustaining us; we’re carrying spirits of adventure, we’re carrying the necessary mysteries and a hopefulness that we will never say ‘we know enough about that’, and we’re carrying willingness to be dazzled.
Off we go.
(I will be writing and posting photos on this website as I go; if you would like to receive email notifications of blog updates, you can click “Follow Wayfaring Willow” at the bottom of the page…it would be a delight for you to join us as we journey.)
callie daniels-howell 