For the first 17 days in July, I have found my way in Victoria, Langley, Bellingham and Portland. Even with a lot of help from Google Maps and the old-fashioned paper variety, I have managed to get myself turned around and utterly lost. Many times. At first, I found the sense of being lost as disconcerting, particularly when I landed on a freeway and had no idea of what direction I was headed.
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| Vancouver Skyline - July 1 2014 - one place I did not get lost |
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Sitting at a Japanese restaurant in a Tacoma mall, I was wondering if I could recommend eating there and then I realized that I probably couldn't find it again. On a journey where most days I don't go into the same bathroom twice, I see that the opportunities appear before me all because I chose a different road. How much of this actually happens or did I notice before I decided to move to the coast? So many opportunities in my life I have stumbled upon.
I did amuse myself pretty heartily in getting lost.
Travelling alone, I am both the pilot and navigator. Sometimes they don't agree. I have an instinct that the next traffic light is my turn but for some reason I continue in the middle lane, see the street sign at the last minute and I am scrambling to find my way back. One of my detours took me full circle back to where I had been - to my utter surprise. I started all over. And isn't that one of the beauties in life - that we get to begin afresh?
Every day. And every day, I have new opportunities for getting lost. I can get used to that.
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| Pike Place Market - Seattle - Adorned for engagement photos | | |
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It is what I find along the way that is what life is all about. The surprises, seeing something in a different way, a great conversation with a stranger, new understandings. That is the gift of new places. And getting lost.
