Saturday 27 June 2015

Travelling

I found the lovely Chinese quote from a poster which my sister and I saw in the Green Turtle Conservation Museum in Wangan Island (where we spent 3 hours in). 


This is the first postcard I have ever sent to myself from my travels, a practice that I picked up from my younger sister Chit whom I travelled with this June to Penghu Island, Taiwan. It turned out to be a very sound practice which I believe I will continue to do each time I travel, as it will allow me to keep track of what strikes me, of what touches me in this journey of life. 

This was a beautiful journey that I took with my sister, possibly the last trip we will take together before she gets married year-end. Hence, I cherish that very much. 

Taken at the Neian beach in Wangan island, where we were taken there by the tour guide of the Green Turtle Museum who wanted to show us the tracks made by the turtles as they came up to shore to nest. He wanted too to bring us to a cafe after dinner, but alas, that was not meant to be. 


Travelling with sis-sy, as what my Chit likes to say, is a very interesting experience --- this is our third trip together (first trip in 2013 where we went Puli and Taichung and this March where we went to our uncle's house in Beinut, Johor Bahru). I learnt from her how to have hearty laughs in life. Most of all, travelling with sis-sy gave me a safe environment where I practice the skills of travelling, where I am safe to make silly mistakes without having to worry being judged. That, I am tremendously grateful for and came to realise that the past few trips honed my courage and ready my heart to prepare myself for solo travelling that I aim to embark next year.


As mentioned in the Chinese quote in the postcard, solo travelling will truly give me the space to explore even more around and within me. That I am full of anticipation for!



 Mythologist and writer Joseph Campbell (March 26, 1904–October 30, 1987) once said this:

"[Sacred space] is an absolute necessity for anybody today. You must have a room, or a certain hour or so a day, where you don’t know what was in the newspapers that morning, you don’t know who your friends are, you don’t know what you owe anybody, you don’t know what anybody owes to you. This is a place where you can simply experience and bring forth what you are and what you might be. This is the place of creative incubation."

And this is what travelling often brings, the sense of not knowing what you are in for, not knowing how something will turn out. Hence I hope I will be able to learn the art of relaxing and how not to have anxieties easily, as what my friend Li San said her solo travelling experiences taught her. 


Travelling, I came to realise too, from reading Campbell, allow us to identify and find our "bliss stations" from time to time, to ensure we are not lost in the busyness of life. It sort of crystallises one's life experiences during an intense short period, allows you to feel something about yourself and the world which you may never have felt in your life but which is something very integral and central aspect of yourself. In short, it awakens you to yourself. 


"Our life has become so economic and practical in its orientation that, as you get older, the claims of the moment upon you are so great, you hardly know where the hell you are, or what it is you intended. You are always doing something that is required of you. Where is your bliss station? You have to try to find it..."

And the most interesting thing is, travelling also taught us that we can find our "bliss stations" in the midst of our daily life, if we choose to. 

"If you do follow your bliss you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. When you can see that, you begin to meet people who are in the field of your bliss, and they open the doors to you. I say, follow your bliss and don’t be afraid, and doors will open where you didn’t know they were going to be."

What doors are open to me? Where do they point to? I will take care to slow down in my journey of life to find that out :)