Patty Mayeux Blog

We’ve just returned from exploring and savoring a new-to-us culture. I put writing aside for a week, fearful I’d forget where I was on the page, lose interest in the characters or worse, cast passion into the ocean and trade the sharp points of purpose for the smooth edges of passivity. I journaled awe-inspiring moments and tuned my radar to absorb the smells of the ocean, colors of the fickle sky, flavors tickling the tongue and rhythms of foreign sounds, down to my muscles and bones until the soles of my feet responded to the changing surfaces. It was a week of tech-deprivation. No iPad for streaming. No email-clogged computer. No camera. Only a phone for reading books and staying in touch with fellow travelers. I’ve returned enriched and enthused in countless ways, knowing the memories will live on within. The next trip you take, large or small, see if you can put technology aside and relish the new world in the way we are meant to observe, using all five of our inborn senses. Pay attention. Soak in the new tastes, smells, sensations, sounds and sights. Name the memories with joy or surprise. Claim them for your own. Return home all the richer.