Burma or Backyard?

How far do you need to go to “travel”?

You can’t just go to Burma at the drop of a hat. In fact, you might never get to Burma. I’ve never been there and who knows if I’ll ever get there. But I won’t fret, I won’t beat myself up over it, I promise to not feel guilty that I haven’t been there or might never get there.

Maybe it’s because most of my day today seemed to be waiting for kids. After soccer practice, then in between soccer practice and baseball practice (which is where the photo below was taken), then after baseball practice. I’m not in a huge hurry, it’s just to get to the next item on the agenda. The agenda isn’t exactly the UN either, it’s daily stuff: soccer practice, playing in the playground with soccer buddies, walk the dog, baseball practice, drop off a friend, make dinner, bath, sing dorky songs from the school over the weekend.

So where does Burma fit in? It doesn’t, of course.

Burma just isn’t going to happen today. That’s OK, I don’t need to go to Burma today. But I do need a minute of jungle or escape or imagination. That I have. That I have with me at all times. I can just pull it out of my pocket like a secret stopwatch and turn it on and envision, imagine, travel far and away. We all have it, we just need to use it. Like any muscle, we need to keep it fresh. Also like muscles, it would rather be flexed a little everyday rather than a big surge once in a while. That’s how I got to Burma today from my backyard.

How far do you need to go for adventure? [Sutro Forest, San Francisco]