Dreamchasers 2023: Resurrecting Our Travels with a Beginner’s Mind
a trip by Bev and Stan
From: January 16th 2023
Until: May 4th 2023
Although we have travelled extensively within Western Canada over the summer months of 2021 and 2022, travelling by motor vehicle across the Canadian prairies, the foothills of Alberta, and the Canadian Rockies, including sailing through British Columbia’s Inland Passage and flying over Haida Gwai, to ultimately explore the incredibly pristine and beautiful Canadian Pacific Northwest coast from our son’s fishing boat somewhere way offshore from Prince Rupert, British Columbia - where we could actually see Alaska while surrounded by the music of whales blowing - it has been three years since we have listened to the music of unfamiliar languages in distant lands. Three long years.
Not since 2020, when our Dreamchasers Southeast Asian adventures that year came to an abrupt halt with our emergency exit from Bali, Indonesia, on March 18th, mere days before the airport, and the entire country, closed for two years. En route home we witnessed several ghostly airports devoid of people and any energy other than fear of the unknown, but deadly, coronavirus that was raging worldwide.
The following years of quarantine, and all the restrictions that Covid brought about, have had a significant impact on life perspectives. I personally have been feeling lately that I am far more fearful of life in general than I ever have been. Certainly Covid has contributed to this, and perhaps aging as well, but it is a state of mind and therefore something that can be altered, with conscious effort.
And so the mission in our upcoming adventures is to dissipate that unwholesome energy and inspire the spirit of discovery once again. We have decided that a suitable attitude for this extensive travel adventure is to practice a beginner’s mind, with no comparisons to how things once were, and no expectations of how things will be based on previous experiences. Instead, we aspire to let each situation that unfolds become an opportunity for this practice. For, to quote President Theodore Roosevelt, “comparison is the thief of joy”.
We will begin our adventures returning to some familiar territories in Thailand and Indonesia - where the beginner’s mind practice may understandably be the most challenging - but where we will also be adding some new discoveries.
Initially, we had hoped to also take our travels into totally new territories with a trip to Turkey in May - somewhere we have never travelled to before - but we changed our travel plans due to the politically volatile situation in Turkey and the May 2023 elections that will be taking place on May 14th - so we will be returning home on May 4th, following our Asian travels.
The entire adventure is premised by the mantra “If the universe allows it”. This is a valuable and appreciated lesson in humility which we can attribute to our communal, global, COVID experience these past three years. All experiences, however dark and challenging, have their silver linings.
On another note, January 2023 marks the ten year anniversary of my retirement from teaching in January 2013. The last ten years have been filled with a plethora of amazing, deeply rewarding experiences offering incredible highs and lows, immense personal growth, some wisdom, and hopefully a continued practice in deepening compassion - all of which I remain deeply grateful for.
Thank you for your interest in our travels.
Trip Length: 3 ½ months
Blog Entries: 12
Photos: 171
Words: 9175
Blog Entries
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