Getting Lost

I am enjoying the book, An Altar in the World by Barbara Brown Taylor. The author has an interesting way of looking at life that gives food for thought.

Her chapter on "Getting Lost" was particularly interesting to me, as she describes travel as one way of "getting lost" in a new place - sometimes in a strange culture where we have no bearings. (The problem is magnified if one doesn't speak the language and can't read the signs!)

I've traveled enough to know exactly what she is talking about.

She describes the opposite of getting lost is following well-worn cow paths, like those on the farm where she lives. (Cows want the closest path from A to B. They are not looking for excitement.)

I love to travel... but I think I have a comfort ratio. Like the cows, I need my familiar life as well. I'd guess that my ratio is 90/10... Ninety percent of the time I like to live predictably. But if I don't get a change of scene from time to time, I go a little "stir-crazy"!

(Just looked the term up... Didn't realize that "stir" originally referred to "prison"... Going crazy from being locked up!)

I think we all have our own comfort ratio. I remember one young adult I taught who told me he had lived in the same small town (near Ottawa) and had the same friends all his life.

That is something I simply can't imagine!