un Viaje Interior

I can't remember the exact date it happened, but it was some time in July 1995 that we decided to take an adult 'Gap Year.' To abandon our orderly timetabled lifestyle and celebrate millennium year with a full 12 months traveling.

An overland Odyssey of discovery through south east Asia, the sub continent, the middle east and finally, wintering over somewhere on the west coast of Ireland in a small fishing village: any fishing village.

Because an Odyssey is not something you can timetable very precisely, planning gave way to spontaneity and we began to see our lives in small rather than large bytes of time. A day here, a week or two there, several weeks to make our way down from Istanbul to Jerusalem then, sometime in the Autumn, to head for Ireland, etc. etc. We had never lived like this before. It was vaguely irresponsible but very exciting.

Then, as is the way with Odysseys, one year rolled over in to two, two became four and then, before we knew it, seven years had elapsed and our life style had become permanently transitory, spontaneous and subject to sudden change. Over the course of those seven years we lived at 9 different addresses in four different countries, spent 18 months traveling and visited over 50 different nations.

The exception had become the rule and short term ruled us absolutely.

Now that we have decided to re settle in New Zealand, part of us feels we should revert to our previously well ordered long term outlook on life, like everyone else, while the rest of us wonders if we can - or even want to anymore?

Maybe the next big journey should be the one the Spanish call un Viaje Interior, a journey inside. The road least traveled, the spiritual voyage of faith we are invited to undertake each Lent that leads to the discovery of God within.

Now thats a journey that required flexibility, an openness to radical change and a readiness to embrace the unknown!