Komdu blessaður

 

Komdu blessaður

Come, and be blessed.

When I travel, I have the profound feeling of being blessed. Visiting churches in foreign countries helps to bring that to the forefront on my mind. I love to go into a church and experience the quiet, beauty, and calm of the place, and take a few moments if possible. All the elements of travel have their uncertainty, and I experience and reflect in a mode of deep thanksgiving that I get to see some places of the world that God has so creatively set in motion. To me, it is truly a gift to get to travel (and I say "get to" because I feel it's such a special thing).

When I get to travel, I feel immensely blessed because I know it's not the norm, especially to places I love to go to, like Iceland and the UK. These are not cheap, quick flights and journeys. Because travel is important to me, I save up my money for a long time, and then take one amazing trip. 

For me, these big trips to my favourite places provide years of inspiration and reflection after the trip. I still reflect on my first trips to the UK (2009, 2010), those first sights of Oxford, the days all to myself exploring Newcastle, England, the epic road trip around Scotland with my brother, and if I go back these kinds of memories go back even farther to my childhood/teens. Travel became a priority for my parents to let us four children experience the U.S. as we never had before. This, I think, installed in me a love for exploring places from an early age that are full of stories, histories, and much different landscapes than I am used to. It awakened in me a resource of inspiration and way to write about things I never would have thought of before.

Reflecting on this kind of lifelong thankfulness as we pass the 13 year mark of losing Dad, I think about how he loved to explore and learn the history of places. He never pushed that on any of us (we were usually impatient for the next thing), but he was the one in every museum and at every historical site reading every plaque and looking slowly at every artifact or monument. He didn't care about the touristy things or the busy-ness of cities. He was there to experience the place and learn about it. He was a great example of what we now might call a "slow traveler". This is how I have adapted my way of travel as I grew up to adulthood, very much modelled after Dad's way of travel. He paid attention to the history and meaning of a place, as I seek to do. 

My family would travel mostly in the Winter (usually around Christmas time when all us kids were on holiday break and Dad could leave because the lawns he mowed weren't growing). So, I have this deep sense of love for all things Winter. That's when I got to travel growing up. That's when I would get to see the amazing Western U.S. played in snow, skied, hiked mountains, gazed at towering waterfalls, and explored the Northeast. I am so deeply thankful to my parents for saving up and taking us four children on such adventures, as I still reflect on those many trips.

The simple act of reflecting in thankfulness can make us feel the blessing that has been present all along life's journey. Sometimes we see the darkness growing, we feel the suffering that comes with being human, and we get lost in a feeling of despair. If you get caught in the spiral of despair, turn your inward eyes toward God, and focus on what you are thankful for now and in the past, knowing it came from Him and He doesn't change. He still wants to bless you. Let the blessing of your past remind you of the blessing that is still present within you now and lighting the way for your future.