The Traveller - The Enlightened one?

The past few years have been a journey of self discovery. Sometimes I think I am quite like my beautiful yet silly dog, I watch him in the evenings as he chases his tail relentlessly, going around in circles (till I help him by placing it in his mouth to end his self imposed torture). I have many questions about the meaning of life and I always seem to come full circle to the same starting point every single time. Cambodia was the partial awakening I needed, I always thought that if I could have a job that I enjoyed then I would feel like I achieved something in life and would consequently be a happier person. I used to work as a waitress at the Grand Hyatt Melbourne, then I used to think to myself: “If I get an Office based job, I will be a happier person”, but then I got the office based job and here I am, more money, but still not content with my job. Does this mean that my search for the ultimate job will never end? Or is the truth that we just need to work to live and as a result, we should not look for fulfilment from our jobs? Countless sleepless nights later, I came to the realisation that I was suffering from 1st world syndrome. The sickness for people who can have just about anything they want without performing any act of manual labour (and cannot understand why their bodies feel frustrated by their self imposed immobility).


Part of the Journey of discovery for me has been the result of my need to travel. Having recently travelled to Cambodia, I was blown away by the Temples, the ruins and the amazing scenery around me. Flashes of my childhood dreams of becoming an Archaeologist came flooding back to me. As I was walking though the ruins of Bayon, I was feeling very emotional, its beauty overpowered me and I wanted to cry tears of happiness for all those years that I locked that tiny hopeful dreamer of an Archaeologist away and threw the key never believing that I would find myself at some point in the future. Whilst in Cambodia, I came across so many people who worked so hard for their daily bread and at no point do they talk about Job Satisfaction, they talk about sending money to family in the Village or sending money for the sick Father. It was the cold splash of water I needed to bring my self absorbed head out of my ever-loving behind.

"The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page" - (St. Augustine)

Through my travels this time, I met amazing people who seemed to just waltz through life and enjoy what they were doing. There are people out there who are prepared to work really hard for a few months a year, and travel to exotic destinations for the rest of the year. These people take their time to experience a culture, a place and its people. They know what they want (they want to travel) and they do it. Simple really.  This simplistic concept seems a bit scary and crazy for most people though. I remember a long time ago - when I was twenty-something years old and I was trying to impress a French boy (this was before I met my significant other), it was midnight and it was the middle of winter in Perth, we were all catching up with a friend and having a pool party in this house that she was house sitting for. This story is not about the French boy or the party- it is about the intense feeling of freedom and fearlessness that gripped my soul that night, and as a result I just jumped into the cold water of the pool without thinking twice- head in first. This is the feeling I get when I travel, there is a jungle beast within my heart that fills the soles of my feet with pockets of soft air. There’s Lift off and at some random moment I see the world as I have always wanted to see it, with freedom – freedom from all the chains that society wraps around our consciousness. Freedom from the predictability of day to day existence, freedom from the daily mundane routine that is seen as normal to most of us, but most of all, freedom to express ourselves as we truly are. My ambition for the immediate future is to travel with a free spirit, with a pinch of craziness, mixed with courage and a zest for life, my ambition is to release and realise the beast within.

"It may be that the satisfaction I need depends on my going away, so that when I've gone and come back, I'll find it at home" - (Rumi)