I love scrolling through Hive posts on Sunday mornings. The city is still quiet, so the mind can wander. Its odd in that while so many people may want to come here to America, once you've lived here your whole life, you want to go somewhere else.
Post after post, I see people from exotic locales, with palm trees in the background amid a vista of sandy beaches. Beautiful old cities in Eastern Europe filled with the narrow winding streets that I enjoyed walking through in Palma, Spain.
Here, were about 100 miles from the mighty Atlantic ocean, with the barrier state of New Jersey between us and those wonderful views. Living in an inland state can have a charm of its own, but I find myself drawn to high mountains, and the rain forests that exist around the world.
When I was a kid, we moved into a house that contained a treasure trove of old books from the early 20th century. I read tales of brave explorers drawn to many of the remaining blank spots on the map, with photos of indigenous people who were seeing westerners for the first time.
Place like "Siam" or Ceylon" which go by different names today. I will never forget when I saw the first photo of a statue of the Indian God Ganesh in the South Asian book. India seemed so magical and far away as magical places should be.
The temples were so intricately designed and carved, you could see the love that was put into such places. Morocco was another spot on the map where the name alone suggested a place of wonder that few people got to visit back in say, 1905.
There was something about the time before instant communications connected much of the world. When you had to endure a long journey aboard a ship in order to get anywhere across the sea.
If you're sitting here on this lazy Sunday as I am, I hope your mind is drawn to a locale other than your own. Maybe you picture yourself visiting there one day, and if so, I hope you manifest that vision and experience the richness that other cultures have to offer.