"The first time I ran away to a foreign land I was about 6 years old. A mystical destination whispered to me through the windows of my tiny two-bedroom house, so I waited until my mother was loading the washing machine before I slipped out the storm door and set sail. I chose a dependable vessel, a turquoise banana-seat bicycle bought from Otasco..."
This begins Sheilah Bright's beautiful travel story, "Taking the Long Way Home", which was published in the Summer 2009 issue of Mia. Since that first voyage on the bicycle, Sheila has traveled to Antarctica, Thailand, Bhutan, South America, and is planning to continue her travels and visit Australia and Africa before her 50th birthday. That's a humbling goal, and one that I'm not sure I could make. But as she tells us in her travel essay, destinations don't always have to be far away or exotic. Those who have the vision to see the beauty in all places can share stories about locations that are as close as the neighborhood bookmobile (that was six-year-old Sheilah's destination as she pedaled her bike through Prattville).
I think all women love to hear stories about where others have traveled, whether it is the Arctic peninsula or the local botanical garden. What moved you? Changed you? Caused you to make discoveries about yourself and the world we live in? Share it with us! Give us a comment here, or send an email to lisa@miamagazine.net.
Happy travels!
-Lisa
No comments:
Post a Comment