Traveling with a theme : Creating a purpose and igniting a passion.

Three days in the back of broken down pick ups, clapped out ex-American school buses, and a final horse back assault through the Nicaraguan jungle could well be (albeit unlikely) as aimless, unfulfilling, predetermined, planned and prophesied as a two week Contiki holiday… but for one item. My three finned instrument of leisure and pleasure.

Now I don’t mean to suggest that your accompanying piece of luggage need be construed of foam and fibreglass, nor in fact should you be required to lug, haul, drag, and eventually ditch an item at all.  My purpose here is to make known the pleasures and imminent passion of traveling with a theme. So please replace my surfboard with your own theme of travel – it could be an internal quest to meet as many distant relatives as possible; maybe you’re traveling in search of a spoon collection from every native tribe in the continent; or your pilgrimage could be one incited by a dream of meeting a mysterious monk on a dirt road but you continue to awake before you can read the street sign. Whatever creates a purpose and ignites your passion.

The crux of the traveling theme in its simplest form is ultimately something with which you can hang your hat on, when for example, that well known all-American traveler (possibly a Walter, maybe a John, often a Peter) bails you up in the train carriage or bus line and with a Texan drawl asks you where you’re headed, and is looking for more than the name of the next train or bus stop for an answer. So with the surety of a sailor at sea I can quickly respond that I'm in search of waves and have no particular direction… And the glorious thing about this is you can be landlocked in Bolivia deep within the Andes with a surfboard (true story!) and the answer will pacify the most inquisitive of interrogators.

What I have found to be true is that we are all already undoubtedly on a journey with a theme, whether we are aware of it or not. And often the theme is shared with a like-minded tribe - and it is the sharing of that experience that often brings us closer to the core or why we ~ the drifters, the travellers, the searchers ~ may always wander, but will never be lost.

The sharing of that experience that often brings us closer to the core or why we ~ the drifters, the travellers, the searchers ~ may always wander, but will never be lost...

There seems to be a lot of 'noise' about purpose and the internal quest to find it. For me, "travelling with a theme" has led me explicitly closer to understanding my greater purpose while continuing to fuel my passions along the way.