Travel’s Paradox – movement or stillness?

the motoroamers

Travel’s Paradox – movement or stillness?

As I sit here, the evening before we head off on the road again, after five weeks in Camping Los Pinos, Denia, Spain, I find myself very reflective.  Not so much recalling all the amazing things we’ve seen or places we’ve visited.  Instead I find myself musing over the greatest paradox, which seems to be flirting with my travelling mind recently.

Travel is as much about being still as it is about movement.

It is easy to conjure up the image of travel being a movement from one place to another, whether that be a necessary commute to work or to visit the shops.  More poignant a concept perhaps, is where travel is marketed as the mode by which we arrive at a holiday destination.  Beyond this, travel, for us, has become an integrated part of the way we now choose to live our lives, as we nomadically drive towards a new ‘home’ for a night or three.  Our experience is so much more than a means to an end, it is an essential part of the journey.

And yet as a meditation teacher, I have come to appreciate the art of stillness, of being rather than doing and its importance in our life’s journey through the chaos, the Matrix (as we like to call it) and day-to-day routines.  Although if you had said to me that, on our travels in the last year, we would learn to see travel as being a resting verb as opposed to a moving verb, I would have thought you quite mad.  Strangely though, this is exactly what has happened and we are learning to embrace the art of travelling stillness as we breathe in an overnight home, a city or a region.

A lot of last year we were on the move; visiting one UNESCO cathedral or city after another.  Covering thousands of miles, crossing country borders, making rendezvous with friends and family and experiencing some incredible sights.  We definitely lived and breathed TRAVEL’s traditional persona. Yet there was very little time to travel with stillness, to be with a place and to leave a little of our souls behind.  This year we promised ourselves it would be different.  More time to smell the sea air, people watch at the local cafe bar, shop in the local markets and get to know the back streets of a town rather than the route to the campsite.

And so far this year, we have fallen into a great being pace.  It has been lovely to experience fully the spirit of Denia; its drama with snow, hurricane storm winds and raging seas.  It has been delightful to visit the non-tourist spots that are tucked away from the main highways that the tourist guides don’t promote on A4 posters.  What a joy to get to know the nice restaurants, the best beers in town and when the market vibrates with local artisans’ stalls of colourful treasure. To cycle the paths that hide the real secrets of a town and see the maze of roads unfold before your eyes.  To take in the scent of the orange groves and watch the almond blossom flourish as it is kissed by winter’s warming sunshine.  All this has been a pleasure as we practise our new travel stillness.

Yet now, after five weeks of being still, our feet have become itchy, our tyres ready to stretch out on the tarmac and our wanderlust yearning to explore the vast expansion of sights and sounds that this country has to offer.  No longer can we travel with stillness.  We must move, we must fulfil our passion for exploration on a wider scale. So what has this period taught us?  We’ve learnt that to travel with movement without stopping is not quality travelling.  Travel is, after all, not just simply a means to an end.  Travel is the uncovering of pleasures that each country has woven into the fabric of its culture. And yet travelling stillness equally has its end point for us too.  To be still for too long creates an inertia that steals away something from our nomadic spirit.  And so we leave Denia with grateful hearts as it has shown us about travel’s balance. Travel is neither movement nor stillness as separate identities; it is a blend of the two, such that it serves the heart’s joy and the mind’s curiosity in equal measure.

For the friends we’ve made, we thank you. For the experiences we’ve had we are grateful and we leave Denia richer in so many ways.

So onwards we move to a richer travelling experience that is now coloured with a greater awareness of how travel is a true blend of stillness and movement. We look forward to the adventures ahead that somehow only movement to a new space can offer and yet with a promise to create the stillness to appreciate its unique heart-beat.

For more reflective blogs, check in here.

/Karen

Published: February 11, 2017

14 Comments

  1. Sarah Dover

    Great insight. Like you both we hopped from one place to another our first couple of years “travelling”
    We then discovered that to give ourselves time to “stop, stand and stare” was very rewarding in our minds. Not to mention making time for Yoga Nidra…… I could go on…..but …..time for relaxing. Enjoy your next stage of travelling and stay safe xx

    Reply
    • Karen Davies

      Hi Sarah, we promise we will, thank you. Kx

      Reply
  2. Mark Beaven

    So love the way you expressed this. It really hits the spot. Emotionally lovely and Thank You!! xxx

    Reply
    • Karen Davies

      Thank you Mark, that’s kind of you to say. Kx

      Reply
  3. Pete

    Life can be rich,your happiness shines through.

    Reply
    • Karen Davies

      Thanks chuckie. We have and always will really valued your friendship which has blossomed since standing still and for that I am grateful. We will see each other again soon. x

      Reply
  4. Margaret Hart

    This is really beautiful and very well expressed. Our experience resonates with yours, a combination of movement and stillness is exactly right for us. Too much of either and we begin to feel either exhausted or restless. Thank you for putting it into words so thoughtfully.

    Reply
    • Karen Davies

      Thank you Margaret, that’s so kind. Kx

      Reply
  5. Richard Gordon-Wilson

    Oh so true! Movement and stillness are both vital to wellbeing. Just like food and water, you must have both to survive. And making friends along the way is the icing on the cake!

    Reply
    • Karen Davies

      Oh yes, like the making new friends bit too! Kx

      Reply
  6. Resa

    Interesting way of looking at how we travel. I agree you need to travel slowly to appreciate the wonderful places we get to visit and sometimes when visiting cities you need to leave some undiscovered treasures for next time. 😃

    Reply
    • Karen Davies

      Very true Resa. Every mile brings another journey. Kx

      Reply
  7. Katherine clune

    We are in our second year full timing and still have NOT got the balance right. Being in one place does not equate to stagnating – the ultimate fear. We seem to be constrained by the need to see and do, as if there’s a finite time period or a visitor arriving at the next major airport. Certainly monasteried and unesco sited out for the mo. But we’re leagning and adjusting.

    Reply
    • Karen Davies

      Hi Katherine, I’m not sure we can ever get it ‘right’. I guess it’s about trusting how you feel at the time and adjusting as you go. How amazing that we can have that flexibility though. I think the human spirit is designed to do and not be and that’s why we find it so difficult. I so hear you on the UNESCO sited out. We should make a T-shirt with that on it – I think we’d make a bomb! Enjoy your travels. Kx

      Reply

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