WE LOVE TO GO A-WANDERING.....

After some overnight rain a couple of days ago I had some interesting companions crossing the road with me as I walked to work. The rain had brought the worms out of their hidey holes. I spotted a couple as I stepped off the kerb on to the road, nothing unusual about that, but then there was another, and another, until I stopped bang in the middle of the road (you can do that in Poatina at 9am, not exactly the place you find peak hour traffic), fascinated to find I was surrounded by about thirty of the wriggly blighters.

Not tiny little fellas either, most were about 20cm long. So what were they doing out here instead of turning over the soggy soil on home turf? Not being privy to worm habits and too lazy to find out, I guess there’s a perfectly logical, and biological and ecological explanation for their behaviour.

Maybe their spot of dirt was now a muddy quagmire and they’d simply come out to freshen themselves up in some nice clean rain, who knows, but right then some looked like they’d pulled an all nighter and were now a bit worse for wear. They were flagging as they crossed the bitumen in search of another patch of dirt to inhabit, some a little shrivelled while others were progressing at well below their normal speed.

What is it that compels us to look beyond our immediate world, and want to experience the worlds of others? The common phrase “the grass is greener on the other side” can be a way of displacing ourselves from the confinement of our everyday routine existence into one we believe would find us much more fulfilled and productive. Only problem is, no matter where you go, you take your baggage with you, and more often than not find your new location doesn’t deliver on your expectations.

The motives for travelling and possibly relocating are as many and varied as those who travel, from wanting to escape, to simply passing through as a tourist, to wanting to immerse yourself in another culture to the extent where it becomes part of you. For many, travelling overseas especially not only opens their eyes to worlds beyond their own, but brings them to a place where they more fully appreciate what they have left behind.

Do we need to leave the familiar to help us discover more of who we are? I guess for many the answer would be an emphatic ‘yes’. The wanderlust urge can be a cathartic motivator to call us out to new challenges, but maybe the solution is to not be so distracted by it, that we are unable to settle in the midst of that restlessness.

Changing our external circumstances doesn’t necessarily mean our internal world will automatically fall into place or heal itself or receive enlightenment and get a new lease of life. Finding the inner peace that sustains you can be found on home soil just as much as in some far flung corner of the planet which someone else calls home.