Daily Intent

We live our lives in structures and systems that others have created as a practical and efficient way of managing large numbers of people, ensuring consistent outcomes and monitoring metrics.  While we have small bits of freedom therein, we are never given days, weeks, and months in a row for us to live out complete freedom.  Within this system we are able to monitor, change and succeed.  We are able to discover who we are within this system.  We may be great at getting problems right, completing assignments on time, following orders, making our classmates laugh and wowing classmates through our artistic or athletic talents.

But this tells us little about who we really are as humans.  We may discover this system isn’t right for us.  Unfortunately, the system offers us little in guidance to alternatives.

The same goes for the culture in which we live.  Either we succeed or fail in this culture based upon the gifts we’ve been given.  This isn’t to say though that our gifts wouldn’t and won’t succeed elsewhere.  Remember our relatives all survived and protected their offspring in far off lands.  They traveled, they provided.  They had great talents that allowed them to succeed in their time, culture and context.

Travel affords us the space and time to step out of the systems, the structures and the culture that have shaped us to whom we believe ourselves to be and discover who we truly are and whether our skill sets are of highest value in our place of origin or some far distant corner of the world.  It will allow those that aspire to serve the poor because they think they should to see if they truly care, to see if they truly have the patience, understanding and compassion.

If one steps into the corporate world for too long they become like a zoo animal, enjoying their consistent lifestyle but unaware of the life out on the plains – though more dangerous, far more fulfilling to their soul.  Even when the zookeeper let’s them out, they stay put.

So if we do go into the corporate world right away, we must be sure to let ourselves out of the cage from time to time not just to go lay on a beach and forget about the cage, but to a place that will enliven our spirit, stretch us outside the comfort lines, introduce our body to adventure, smells, environments, and colors that are beyond the structure of our conservative life approach.

We may return home each time even more grateful for our consistent lifestyle.  Or we may find it time to never look back.  Either way we will be a better, more conscious, more intentional person.

We’ve been given one life to live.  We’ve been given one world to explore.  Be forever conscious and grateful for this luxury of travel.

I ensure I never forget this luxury by texting my sister each night with one thing for which I’m grateful. She does the same.  It is changing both our lives.  Might it change yours?

Tonight you will all be the gratitude about which I write.