I’ve got the suitcase on the bedroom floor, a new backpack, I found my passport and replacement batteries for my tuner and I’m counting out CDs to line the bottom of the bag.
The sun is out and shining, the wind is blowing, dare we say the winter is behind us? No, we do not dare.
What to bring. What do you bring? You bring a rain jacket if it calls for rain. You bring suncreen if they call for sun. You bring what you wrote and pray it connects with others. You bring the passport and the underpants, the journal and the travel itinerary, the guidebook and an open heart. Your spouse asks you what you’re most looking forward to doing or seeing and you think and think, but have no clear answer.
Maybe you bring that feeling you know is waiting for you on the other side of the Atlantic. Rather, you don’t bring it. You know it’s already there.
That feeling. I know it so well. It’s waiting for me on the other side of customs, in a place where I don’t speak the language, on the streets that kill your feet. Oh right. Bring good walking shoes.
I love that feeling. On the other side of the ocean is this beautiful feeling of freedom and possibility. Yes.
Bring possibility. Not probability. Don’t get confused. Bring possibility. Bring the hope of a blue sky and a free day and a tourist’s map and your only mission is to discover something. Little things around corners beside canals and grafiti tags, and also big things like conversations with strangers in a pub or paintings by a master hanging in stone museums.
What to bring? Bring yourself. And then bring something to write with and then spend your days digging deeper into the question. What to bring? Bring a question. Bring more than one. The good news is they don’t weigh them at check in. Bring the question: What am I doing here? Bring the question: Where am I going? Bring the question: Who do I think I am? Bring the question: How will this inform me?
Questions are good to pack. On a walk, on a drive, on your way out of town. They’re good to spend time with, like friends.
Travel is something I love. I love travel and music and being in a new place with new people.
Because I’ve been running, and because I’ve been planning and working and singing, I haven’t given much time for thinking but now I am. I’m thinking about what to bring and in four short days, I’m getting on a airplane. Truly, it’s one of my favorite things in the world. The first plane I was ever on took to me from LAX to Asuncion, Paraguay. I was fifteen years old. It’s been planes and places and dreaming and language ever since.
Don’t worry about the probabilities. Consider the possibilities. Even when things seem bleak, even things are on the outs, you don’t know where the magic may appear. I’ve seen it. Lots of times. The thing is, you have to know what to bring in order to be ready for what to receive.
You gotta know what to bring in order to be at the ready for what to receive, my friends.
From where I’m sitting, I think I’m bringing open eyes, an open heart, a little room for magic and a copy of my passport just in case. I love you guys. See you in Europe!!!