Giving Thanks for Blank Pages- A Message of Inspiration

A message of Thanksgiving to all travelers. As I thumbed through the paper this past week I was confronted with a page that was left blank. Not intentional of course and I chuckled as some poor sap would have to hear it from the editor over wasted white space which can certainly add up in cost. Upon further review, maybe this space isn’t so wasted at all. Maybe this space was there to remind me of the control that we all hold in our lives. Let me rewind and explain myself for all you travelers.

For the past year or so I’ve detoxed myself from the news. With the exception of the months leading up to the election, I watched almost nothing in terms of news stories. This includes alerts on my phone, newspapers, websites and any other medium that could engage me on the world around me. And, with that empty cavern built-in my mind, I basked in the glory of being blissfully ignorant. What I thought would be a difficult challenge was in fact quite simple.

Now, post-election, here I sit staring at a couple of empty pages with thoughts of all the good news that could fill them. Only then did I realize that these blank pages were designed for me…and for you. Chances are, if you are reading this blog or my fellow bloggers posts, your destiny lies not only in the events of the world around you, but also in the events you sketch. As travelers, you understand that the world is much larger than what you can read in the daily news. At some point in our lives we decide that living in this world purely on the guidance and headlines from others is unsatisfying. And that’s when we, as travelers, decide to fill in these blank pages ourselves.

Be Your Own Inspiration

Instead of dreaming, we do. Instead of reading, we write. Instead of wishing, we accomplish. It’s a fine line between what others can do and what you can do yourself. For years, I envisioned a life of travel but like other goals I simply couldn’t imagine success in this vision. Others have done what we do countless times and proven the theory that if you can conceive it, you can do it. Every day I watch with amazement as the Twitter requests come in with lives and stories that I can only hope to accomplish. The pictures, the smiles, the stories all come to life. They, like me, fill in the empty pages of our lives with something that we can look back on with satisfaction. Wanderlust may be an overused term, but its relevance is undeniable.

This is obviously not the typical post you would see on this forum but one I think is worthwhile to point out. We sometimes get so wrapped into the deals, the credit cards, the bonuses and everything else we MUST do to make our dreams a reality, that the obvious may get lost. Like the pages of a newspaper filled with countless stories and transpirings, our lives are no different. We are a blank page being prepped for a headline, our next trip looming large in the story of our life. My fellow travelers inspire me daily and I often anticipate that next comment or post that triggers my wanderlust. You know the moment. The one where you look to your wife, kids or even in the mirror and realize, I’m actually going to a place that I’ve only seen in a magazine or heard from a story.

As we all know it’s easier to simply sit on our hands and live through others realities, but what you lose is the actual feeling of being there yourself. That feeling can’t be encapsulated in an explanation. Travel bloggers and writers can make pictures and words come alive, but the feeling? No, the feeling is reserved for the person who experiences it firsthand. It’s no different from showing a picture to a friend and saying, “I just can’t put it into words.” My goal is and always has been to not report but to inspire. If I don’t like a destination, it certainly doesn’t mean that you will have the same perception. And that’s the beauty of travel.

Let us be thankful for the many tips that make it possible but let’s be even more cognizant of the inspiration we all bring to each other. Continue to motivate the people around you and the people you may never meet. The world is more beautiful in person than from a page and we decide when to move to the next chapter and accentuate the positive in our lives. So on this American Thanksgiving Holiday, I invite the entire world to fill in your blank pages by looking this world through your eyes, not everyone else’s.

Live Within Your Means, Travel Beyond Them!