"all my life i have lived and behaved very much like the sandpiper just running down the edges of different countries and continents, looking for something." ― Elizabeth Bishop For as long as I can remember I have been hooked on the world. I have dreamed of traveling everywhere and living my experiences in an authentic way. I saw myself in Africa, Asia, Europe. I imagined I was rooted in The Americas, Micronesia, and Melanesia. When I couldn't get there physically, I lived with maps upon my walls everywhere so that by a simple glance I could transport myself to my desired locale in dreamtime. Wanderlust pulled me. I followed my heart.
"A person susceptible to "wanderlust" is not so much addicted to movement as committed to transformation." ― Pico Iyer
As a young girl, I knew intuitively that I would know more about life, about myself if I could experience life the way others did. Walking a mile and all that. I knew it would broaden my horizons and expand my compassion. Mind you, I didn't need them for that, I was already compassionate and broadened, but it could only make me more of that. A spirit of wanderlust was an urgent imperative, for I saw myself as everyone everywhere, and I longed to know myself through their eyes. My mother's National Geographic magazines aided my imagination as did George Pierrot Presents -a 1960s weekly TV travelogue of adventures cataloguing places around the world. I could imagine a life in Kenya or in Cambodia. I saw myself in the Samoan people and felt connected to the Aboriginal people of Australia. I pictured myself in Korea, and was stirred deeply by images of Thai culture.
With a moon in Cancer, I have always loved homeplace. It's more than important. It is my foundation, my center, my recharge zone. But my Gemini-rising ascendant has made me curious about everything. Everything. Always. To find an interesting balance between these two inner impulses, I establish myself in that home (where ever I choose it to be) and then wander about literally, figuratively and imaginatively. I dream myself a larger, more expansive human being. I recognize my oneness with others that transcends geographical boundaries and cultural definitions, and which binds me to my humanity as my spirit expands. I can't stop longing for life lived in diverse places and spaces. I hunger for the experience. I need to taste the joy which comes as I trod new lands, feel the delight in my soul of seeing new faces, thrill to hear new laughter peal in new spaces.
I am a wanderer, a global woman. And everywhere is home.
© 2015 Egyirba High All Rights Reserved
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