
This week I’ve been mapping out the article I’m planning to write while there: ‘Seven Days Walking in Florence’. So far I’m considering ten different themes, but as I walk and wander I’ll settle into the perfect seven.
I don’t know why, but more than usual I’ve heard a longing from those I’ve told about my trip. Oh, I wish I could do something like that… I wish I were you…I wish I had been more adventuresome.
Undoubtedly each comment is particular to the individual. I don’t know what they specifically had in mind, nor perhaps did they, but they definitely weren’t throwaway comments. In fact, there was a common theme: a deep desire to tap into something essential, to express their authentic self, which they knew they could only access by stepping ‘out of the box’.
Perhaps this is why I continue to take my solitary trips—to keep my authentic self alive and developing. In many respects I don’t feel like I’m stepping out of the box anymore, but I know I am. Not everyone started practicing as early as me with parental encouragement to be a decision-maker and risk-taker. For that I am very grateful. But I believe that our deepest longings are not fulfilled with by a one-time event. We have to keep at it, keep finding out what we need to do to keep developing. And so I will keep at it tomorrow and for as long as I can.