Close to home

It seems I am always planning the next adventure, most likely away from home. Perhaps it’s my craving for exploration or my own remedy against routine. Already, having just returned from Egypt, I began looking for flights for my next departure. As a counterbalance I think it is time to highlight adventures nearby.

Alain de Button’s book “The Art of Travel” provided the inspiration. In the final pages labeled “On habit” under the category “Return” he reminds us that a “traveling mind-set” when applied to our own backyards can open our eyes to that which “we have become habituated”. He offers us Xavier de Maistre’s example of undertaking a journey around his bedroom.

“…Xavier de Maistre was gently nudging us to try, before taking off for distant hemispheres, to notice what we have already seen.”

For the next several months, I propose to take a journey each week close to home. By ‘home’, I mean Harlingen (where I sleep) and San Juan (where I work). By ‘close’, I mean no further than an hour’s distance.