Anyone who really knows is aware that The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is a special movie for me. For those that don't know, it was the last movie I saw with my mom. She loved to travel and be adventurous but was sidelined because of life. Kids, health, parents health. Everything else took priority. After we saw this movie she really wanted to change things for herself. Wanted to see things, meet people, go to the places where our family if from. She was really, really passionate about making it happen. About 2 weeks later she died.
This past weekend I had TERRIBLE allergies and pretty much didn't leave the house for 2 days. I came across this documentary and of course binge watched it. Its called The Long Way Round starring Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman. They go on a 20,000 mile motorcycle trek from London through eastern Europe and Russian, flying to Alaska through the Canada and the US ending in New York. Everyone should watch it, and the follow up doc Long Way Down.
This little documentary re-lit that fire that was started in those discussions I had with my mom. It was incredibly inspiring, and it made me realize how much of not only this country we live we miss seeing, but the world. Its huge, and beautiful and full of people and experiences that we are missing out on because we are worried about facebook, and selfies and twitter. I read a quote today that romanticizes my feeling a bit, but accurately describes it... "I'm in love with places I've never been to and people I've never met." I wonder how our perspective would change if we longed for new experiences, new relationships with people and new places the way we longed for new phones and gadgets and selfie sticks. Our day to day focus is very narrow, and very sad.
I came to the realization this past year that if I didn't just jump in and make things happen, they were forever going to stay on my bucket list. Being happy shouldn't be so complicated. At any rate, I have made it my goal to travel more. I want to surround myself with new experiences, and cultures. I want to meet people. There are places I want to be for my mom, but I'm not doing it just for her. I am doing it for myself, and probably dragging Matt along for the ride. We've made tentative plans for a trip in January 2016 and I'm super excited about it!! I'm not going to divulge where just yet. We will see how things go in the next couple weeks. In the meantime....
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