On Deck With Declan

Hello, Constant Readers.

“Out of my country and myself I go,” that was to be my quote of the week. Yet, I want it here, where I can see and hold it, rather than down there at the bottom of the page – reading it here is an easy, urging wind.

When one travels, one steps out of their bounds. Not in the mere physical sense, but in the psychological and the social as well. We become someone else – we are no longer confined by the expectancies of others and our own, as we are our harshest critics.

To explain it best is a matter of opposites. By looking at the return we see the feeling of travel reversed; there is a major adjustment to coming home. Like squeezing into an ill-fitting suit – we have expanded, another multitude has been added to the already capacious self. Readjusting back into life’s regularities is difficult because we don't fit our old accoutrements – these things leave no room for the changed traveller.

It is like arriving home to parents; you are no longer the independent adult, you become the you that they see – their child. You fill the tiny shoes given to you at the door. In your profession, you separate and become another you. With certain friends.

Why I say all of this is that I believe the travelling self is the truest, the most authentic.

I want to remind those of us in the Whitsundays of the greatest joy: movement and change. To step out of your country and yourself – that may have been the reason many of us came here in the first place. It is a holiday locale, after all.

In a word, do not be comfortable in your shoes for too long; step out of them and see the open road. I will meet you there.

Quote of the Week:

“I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move.” – Robert Louis Stevenson

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