Feeling Adventure In My Skin

For many years I have known that I could not stay in one place without wanderlust pulling at my soul. For this reason I have changed jobs, moved from hither to yon, and traveled as often as I could fit wandering into my life. Often work interfered and even sometimes partners did not understand my need to go where the winds of change called me to follow. Moving from one place to another when I was younger seemed to satisfy my need for change….for a while. I can remember my parents telling me when I was younger that I put way too many miles on every car I owned, and my response always was: “I only have a car to take me to unknown places.” Always …a rebel with a cause….to go and experience adventure.

     Change just resonates with me, and I resonate with change. Routine bores me. I have loved meeting people and communing with lands, waters, and stars of varied places. I know now it is because I crave new experiences because I feel adventure in my skin, on my face, in my heart, and mostly in my soul. 

     It has taken years of self discipline and committed inner work to finally embrace and accept the fact that  I am not like all people…but I do have much in common with those who have the DNA of needing to wander to feel sane. It is the sitting with routine , mundane activities that create a lost, depressed,  and confused aspect within me. In my last life-cycle one must question if I were a gypsy. In spite of the need for change, I can sit still and go into deep reflection and introspection for quite a long period of time. I can spend hours, days, and weeks creating projects involving art, writing, and reading . I can sit in total silence, which I frequently do, but I must have adventurous change along with it. Maybe it is all wrapped around the need to be free of any ties that I feel bind me!

      As Old Man Winter had just begun his visitation to the East Coast, I traveled by car a little over 1600 miles to hang out in Southern New Mexico for  a couple of months. If you think I just sat in the town where I have been residing , you would be dead wrong. I have gone to so many places while I have been here, met so many interesting people, and my feet have connected with so many inspiring woods, lands, businesses, coffee houses, and more! I have had uplifting and refreshing conversations all over Southern New Mexico from the beautiful Aguirre Spring Campground on the East Side of the Organ Mountains, to the unique and refreshing mineral baths along the Rio Grande River  and the hippie  residents of artsy Truth or Consequences, to the Cloudscroft mountain community outside of Alamogordo, to Dripping Springs’ rock formations and walking trails, to Fort Seiden State Park’s ruins of the old fort, to the Gila Cliff Dwellings’ natural caves and ancestral villages through the Gila National Forest, to the wonderful white sand dunes of the White Sands National Monument, to the large man made lake of Elephant Butte Park, to Old Mesilla at the edge of Las Cruces filled with unique shops and local artists, to Spaceport America , to Sunspot in the Sacramento Mountains and the National Solar Observatory, and many other local hikes!   

When I was not busy seeing the enchantment of the lands, I worked a bit via my laptop computer delivering speech therapy services to schools in California from my temporary New Mexico residence. I really think the Universe decided to give this gypsy a break by creating telespeech so I can work from anywhere , as long as I have access to the internet! 

To those resistant to change, I encourage you to face your fears, and dive head or feet first right over your Cliff of Doubt into the magical world of physical-emotional-mental- and spiritual exaltation that only leaving home and traveling can afford those who have the passion to wander!  The only thing you have to give up is routine, and in my Gypsy-Mind, that cannot be a bad thing!