(travel journal entries)

There is beauty in the “in-between”.

When we go from one location to the next, where we are leaving one person and visiting another. Lush fields await us “in-between”, hay bales all gathered up waiting to be transported, and open skies full of clouds of different variety. Some clouds look like spotted balls in the sky, while others look like angelic heavens beckoning us to come forward. I love seeing clouds in the distance that are actively raining on a land yet to be seen. All these sights are found in the adventuring, where the mind is allowed to meander.

The in-between times, especially in travel, are reflective moments. Times to sit and think. When our sole responsibility is to be present in the moment. There is no better time than driving in the car, in my opinion and experience. Especially on a long road trip, I find myself reflecting on life as I see beautiful scenery, creating space for suppressed thoughts to surface and meet the sun – the little thought seedlings trying to find a bit of space to be meditated on.

Of course, sometimes it can be boring. Even still, there is a lot of beauty when we sit in the stillness. We are taught about stillness through things like road trips and the rhythms of the church liturgical calendar. There is a season in the calendar called “Ordinary Times”, which invite us to come back to the teachings of Jesus, think about who he is, and reflect on how we are actively living in touch with who He has called us to be. This is the longest season in the liturgical calendar; it represents growth and new life. Growth and new life are often subtle – not a dramatic valley nor an epic mountain top, just a flat plateau with a gentle incline/decline. My instant gratification mindset tempts me to zone out on the plateau.

A zoned-out mindset looks like watching hours of tv, doom-scrolling, or engaging in meaningless distractions, which is not the way to have my best thoughts or novel ideas. In fact, the zoned-out mindset zaps all my creative energy. My most intriguing concepts or ideas from God often come during “a long obedience in the same direction” (Eugene Peterson – quoting Nietzsche)). This long obedience takes a lot of discipline and is tiring to me. In the midst of these feelings, there is an invitation is to stay active, do good, look forward at what is to come with joy.

Above are the thoughts I have when taking long road trips alone, perhaps a bit more refined in an essay format though. My thoughts are very flowery in the raw form, but even reflecting the words seem bound to a theoretical realm. The thoughts from travelling take root when I return home. Time in the silence and in a space of meditation fuels me to come back to my “everyday life” with a renewed sense of vision, hope, and purpose. A simple pleasure given by God is worth more than all the riches and wild experience the world can give me.