wanderlust

{found via pinterest from adventure.com}

lately i've had a horrible case of wanderlust. there are many reasons that contribute to this building urge to go on an adventure. i think the biggest one is probably that we haven't had much of a true vacation in a while. i haven't been to many new and exciting places in the last couple of years. we've traveled plenty to visit people, but it has been quite a while since we went somewhere with the sole purpose - or at least the primary purpose - of seeing the sights.

i miss that. i miss taking trips like that.

now i'm trying to think of the best place to go for our anniversary this fall. our kids are younger than we anticipated when we first started talking about our 10 year anniversary trip, so we won't be going to britain  - just the two of us - like we originally hoped. we decided that a long weekend will have to suffice, and now it just comes down to the where.

we don't want to spend a ton of money, but we do want to go somewhere we haven't really seen before, and unfortunately it will need to be in the same, or a neighboring, time zone. but as i've thought about it more i have realized that for as much as i enjoy being home, and as much as i like our house, and our neighborhood, and staying put for a bit after the go-go-go of the holidays; i want to go somewhere new. i want to experience something i've never seen before.

this isn't to say there aren't a million places i'd love to go back to, but there are also so many amazing places i've never been.

even trying to pick a place within two time zones in this country is incredibly difficult. but once you open it up to the whole world, and i think about all the places i want to go? it makes me want to start my own nomadic tribe and just go. i have no idea how i'd fit all of my shoes into the closet of an rv, but it'd be fun to try. {peter doesn't need any clothes or shoes, right? exactly.}

granted i also love having a place to really come home to, but that whole tiny house thing is looking better and better the more i think about it.

i want to climb mountains. i want to see the northern lights. i want to see lantern festivals. i want to take a canoe through canterbury. i want to visit the great wall of china. i want to see the highlands of scotland. i want to experience why denmark is the happiest place on earth. i want to see bridges, lakes, castles, and canyons. i want to see glaciers up close. i want to swim in all the oceans and see the great barrier reef. i want to go on safari in africa. i want to spend months traveling around this country, and years traveling around the world.

i recently heard a long-time national geographic photographer - dewitt jones - give a talk on creativity. and he said when he worked for national geographic they used to tell him {and their other employees, i'm sure} to go out and capture what's right in the world.

find what is right in the world.
it's a great way to plan your days.

today i'm going to go out and find things that are right in the world.

sure, there's plenty wrong with the world. we all know that. we all experience that. and it's very easy to get caught up in it. and it's not to say that we shouldn't try to make wrong things right again - or as right as they can be. but it is to say that we shouldn't get stuck there. we shouldn't get lost in the wrong. it's an awfully hard place to live your life. sometimes we have to walk through those times of struggle. and struggles are real. but as much as possible trying to focus on what's right - having gratitude for those things that are right with the world, even in the midst of trials and struggles can go a long way to bringing salve to our souls.

even though there's much of me that wants to find what's right in the world in all the different corners of the world i need to remember that i can find what's right with my little corner of the world - exactly where i am today.

i hope you get a chance to experience different places in this beautiful creation. and i hope wherever you are today you focus on what's right in the world.

{and if you want to see the photos that have inspired my wanderlust as of late you can check out my pinterest board here.}

xoxo