“The world as we know it is a remarkable place.” – Jason Mraz
Keeping up with the blog has proved to be much more difficult than I had anticipated on this trip. Each day is filled with a wealth of novel beauty that I never know where to begin when I sit down to write. It’s all a bit overwhelming and I find myself struggling to be able to put into words the awe that I experience each and each every day that I am waking up on this trip. I mean, how do I fit the White Sands into a blog piece—when the next day I’m soaring over Albuquerque in a hot air balloon. How do I cut a video of snowmobiling when I am taking the time to witness a brilliant sunset? Or how do I give the Arches National Park a fair share of blog space—when the next day we are off to the next adventure?
If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the last two week, it’s that beauty is everywhere we look—and that it doesn’t take very much to go and find it. Letting ourselves sit and enjoy it? Embrace it? Now that’s the hard part. But once we let ourselves do that? Whew. What a feeling. I’m glad I am letting myself do that–letting myself experience the world–our home as it exists–beneath, above, and beyond what we can ordinarily see–or let ourselves see
One morning in New Mexico, we discovered the underworld as we explored the Carlsbad Caverns. It’s extremely easy to forget that so much more exists when each day we wake up and go through the same routines. It’s easy to forget that years of development came before our city offices—and our streetlights. It’s easy to forget that a world often exists outside our focused lives—but it does.
Over the course of two weeks, I’ve been reminded of this on a number of occasions—even if it wasn’t always underground. In fact—many of the experiences occurred above—and even beyond as we sledded down the slopes of the great White Sands:
Danced ourselves silly in Danceyville, Tennessee on the side of the street:
Floated in a hot air balloon above Albuquerque
Conquered the Continental Divide by snow mobile.
Shimmied our way up and down an icy path to a National Arch, laid under the stars at a remote location in New Mexico, hiked our way to The Wave in Coyote Buttes:
And took a gander at the Grand Canyon:
The road trip was meant to serve as a finale to the first Hobby Hoarder year—a celebration of sticking to a plan—and going through with it—and additionally a celebration of finding something to be passionate about, and scheduling time for it. It’s a celebration of making a choice–a choice to go on adventures– a choice to try something new– a choice to live life to it’s fullest–even when people or obstacles are challenging us not to. What I’ve found is that the Road Trip, while it includes hobbies—has almost grown into it’s own project—but one that continues to fulfill a similar purpose as the The Hobby Hoarder year.
Both have been steady reminders that waking up each morning is worth it; that saying you are going to do something—and going through with it can be the most rewarding experience; and that each hobby—or activity you choose to do or place you choose to visit—has something to offer—something worth looking more closely at—something to share–Something that we can then go on to smile about–and share with others.
The exciting part is that this trip is not even half over yet—and the more I see—the more in awe I become. This world…it is a magical—beautiful place—filled with just an abundance of opportunities–and again, even before our apartments or our cities—it is our home. And it feels good to be getting to know home—beneath, above and beyond.
Photo Taken by David Tierney Lerner
The Hobby Hoarder 