Welcome back to Philip James Travel!
Do you find it harder than usual to stay on task and avoid all the extra distractions that endlessly keep popping up in front of us these days? With all the best intentions to methodically tackle one chore (work or household) after another to achieve a finished project, I keep getting distracted with myriad other things. These other things are not unimportant, but they are impediments to higher priority items. I (and you for that matter) have little ability to control the crisis that we are living through, and though I (we) often feel quite helpless about our insignificance in the matter, we, in fact, can control how to react to it. And if our collective reactions are positive and affirming and for the greater good, then there’s great hope for how the “other end” of this crisis will look.
My newsletter title this week is More and Less, and my reason for choosing it dawned on an early morning walk with Daisy, our 3-year old black lab mix, as I was contemplating how this new, temporary reality is forcing us to rethink and retool and readjust our lives and livelihoods. With less access to overstocked grocery shelves, we’re economizing and being less wasteful. Without shopping malls we’re being more intentional about what we need and less about what we want. With strains on the healthcare system, we’re coming up with viable solutions to provide the truest heroes with the supplies they need. With whole families at home, we’re spending more time connecting with each other and less time isolating ourselves. In general, whether we realize it or not, we’re seeking balance. If there’s less of something (good), we’re filling the void with new, different things to offset the imbalance. And where there’s an abundance of good, we’re doing a better job of taking notice of that good and being grateful; and even better, we’re jumping on the bandwagon to see how we can play our parts as well. Please be aware of those opportunities!
As it relates to travel, the More and Less mindset can apply to how we decide to travel when it is safe and appropriate, and where we choose to go, and how we spend our time when we are there. Maybe we can get more from our travels by spending a bit less or by staying closer to home, and maybe we can leave an outsize impact (in a good way) on where we choose to go. The lasting impact could be the work that we do in a community to help rebuild it physically (voluntourism), or the impact can be in the economic sense in that we simply go see, listen, learn and touch.
We 2-leggers are a social lot by nature, and while we patiently do our parts by staying at home and keeping germ-distance from one another, the power is growing by the minute to go out, reach out, and seek out all the good that we know is there in our local, regional and global community.
Now is not the time to travel, but don’t give up the dream; keep that dream alive. And when the time is right it will be right. In the meantime, be an armchair traveler, and take a virtual trip.
We’re all in this together, and I am here for you. Stay well.
Destination Inspiration: Virtual Tours of 5 National Parks
Philip -