Radical displacement and the softening of habits

Travel accomplishes something immediately that meditation accomplishes with time. Meditation's hyper focus on the simplest of bodily experiences like breathing, sensations, sounds, the weight of the body, a  breeze on the skin, removes distraction and centers. In noticing these experiences of exceptionally present attention, we escape the more complicated immersions in the trials of will, the baggage of our plans and sense of control. We feel more simply alive because that's really all we are, alive. 

I don't know that I've ever heard anyone exclaim, "I feel alive." as though it were a problem. 

Travel, in it's endless cascade of learning, problem solving and neediness accomplishes something similar. We feel more at mercy of the present moment, because we are unmoored from our habits, being carried around on the waves of radical displacement. 

Erika embraces this spirit of abandon more perfectly than anyone I've ever known and it's magnetic. But I don't think it's some divined gift inaccessible to the rest of us. For her, it's not even a practiced skill, but more likely a functional response. When we first started writing to each other, Erika's anxieties and tendency to stagnate in worry were all consuming. She could spend days in her room, carefully considering every possible outcome for a life plan spanning several years, while simultaneously important deadlines or meetings came and went without her. This old quality of hers is a whisper in travel; this way of being is the antidote.

She is fantastically fun to follow because it's like chasing wind. You have to focus to keep up and the quality of her company becomes a meditation on being present. 

I'm excited for the ways this trip will change me, and I'm grateful for this remarkable friend.