For the TravelLer

From Ellen Bryant Voigt’s tropical fantasy to Adélia Prado’s meditations on a rose, there is little doubt of our great curiosity and humanity’s pull toward adventure; that no matter the physical confines of our present, the mind will always find its way toward the light of an open road.

​As we mark another entry in our staycation travelogue, some guiding words from the Irish poet and philosopher John O’Donohue, whose poem “For the Traveller” serves as a gentle reminder that wherever you go, there you are. O’Donohue speaks to the intrepid traveller in us all, for whom every step and stride is another leap into space. Every stanza is brimming with gratitude and offers a most spiritual view of our singular journey in time, sprinkling his lived wisdom along the way.

For the Traveller

Every time you leave home,
Another road takes you
Into a world you were never in.

New strangers on other paths await.
New places that have never seen you
​Will startle a little at your entry.
Old places that know you well
Will pretend nothing
Changed since your last visit.

When you travel, you find yourself
Alone in a different way,
More attentive now
To the self you bring along,
Your more subtle eye watching
You abroad; and how what meets you
Touches that part of the heart
That lies low at home:

How you unexpectedly attune
To the timbre in some voice,
Opening in conversation
You want to take in
To where your longing
Has pressed hard enough
Inward, on some unsaid dark,
To create a crystal of insight
You could not have known
You needed
To illuminate
Your way.

When you travel,
A new silence
Goes with you,
And if you listen,
You will hear
What your heart would
Love to say.

A journey can become a sacred thing:
Make sure, before you go,
To take the time
To bless your going forth,
To free your heart of ballast
So that the compass of your soul
Might direct you toward
The territories of spirit
Where you will discover
More of your hidden life,
And the urgencies
That deserve to claim you.
​
May you travel in an awakened way,
Gathered wisely into your inner ground;
That you may not waste the invitations
Which wait along the way to transform you.

May you travel safely, arrive refreshed,
And live your time away to its fullest;
Return home more enriched, and free
To balance the gift of days which call you