How Travel Can Set You Free

By AndreaPhilosophy

Adventure. Reprieve.
Excitement. Relaxation.
Restorative. Invigorating.
Refreshing. Memorable.

I just got back from a trip to Jackson Hole, Wyoming with a group of writers working a volume about the American West. It was a great reminder of how travel can give us newfound energy and the leisure to see things more clearly. 

If you are organizing a conference I recommend a two-hour break after lunch, which we got. We naturally splintered off into different groups, and the trio I was a part of hiked across the Murie Ranch meadows and footbridges until we came to the Snake River, where we saw a black bear and her cub on the other side. She was far enough away so that no one was startled, but also near enough to keep bears and people locked in a gaze of acknowledgment. Everyone’s attention was broken when another cub splashed across the river to join the family. Once the three bears were together again, they were off into golden fields, mama loping up and down in a gait that was playful, powerful, and really just iconic ‘bear.’

After we saw the bears there was an energy it’s hard to describe. We were somehow more excited about what we were doing and immediately started discovering connections. As we came closer to nature, we also came closer to one another, and I learned that one had founded the Arizona-based Sonoran Institute and the other was featured in Forever Wild, a documentary about Telluride that had been made by Sedona filmmakers.  

Small world. Beautiful world. A perfect spot to plan our writing as we shared and shaped ideas. 

Travel energizes and relaxes us at the same time. We can get clarity on what beauty is, and how to bring more of it into our lives. Good conversations help this happen. That’s why at Sedona Philosophy, we focus as much on what is said, as what is seen.

Andrea
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