Wanderlust

My current passport expires next year, and I'm starting my paperwork to renew my passport tonight.  I'm so glad the State department will return this passport as well as my new one.  These stamps and visas are the footprints of my travels around this fabulous world.  

This passport was issued almost ten years ago.  In that time, I've done almost all of my independent travels.  I've been on four continents and in over twenty countries.  Each place has been incredible.  

I used to always want to go somewhere new, someplace previously unexplored by Hope.  Perhaps age is mellowing me, but now I have some places that I long to return to as well.  I would love to visit a friend in Tanzania and take a ferry to Zanzibar.  Each time I speak to a Moroccan, I am tugged towards the vibrant colors I see in pictures of Fez and Casablanca.  I am in awe of the bright lights and sheer numbers of China.  Perhaps I could teach in the tropical humidity of Jakarta...But my fickle heart persists in reminding me of the red dirt roads of Africa, flat topped acacia trees, and the flaming orange sun as it drops below the horizon.  

As my studies continue, I anticipate knowing where this degree (and hopefully a job!) will take me.  Will it be Indonesia, or China, or UAE, or Mozambique, or Kazakhstan?  Each has an appeal to my adventurous TCK heart! 

J.R.R. Tolkien wrote the following poem for the Lord of the Rings.  I love the second line.

All that is gold does not glitter,

Not all those who wander are lost;

The old that is strong does not wither,

Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken,

A light from the shadows shall spring;

Renewed shall be blade that was broken,

The crownless again shall be king.