Traveling Masterfully Mundane

How do the ordinary doings of life most impact your travels?

“Day to day things, the mundane, are what keeps the motor running. How extraordinary the ordinary really is – a tool we all use to keep going, a template for sanity.” (Cecelia Ahern)

After living over forty years of my life in the same home, we finally decided to move. In the process of doing so, I suddenly noticed my attention being redirected to the immense power of the mundane. Such a stunning thought, uncharacteristic  for me as a person, began when most of our material possessions lie boxed in various rooms, ready for conveyance to our new condo a few days later. It’s important to reveal as well that we’d moved our heavy furniture around some, creating spacious open space in this unit.

So with our condo now relatively empty, I noticed unusual hypersensitivity to commonplace sounds and sights that I’d rarely paid much attention to before. In this regard, a twisted array of electrical cords, clicking ceiling fan, unbalanced sway of our vintage rocking chair and an annoying drip of a multifunctional shower head come vividly to mind.

What I’m trying to suggest today, might we learn to better manage those ordinary tasks in life that practically matter if we limit our materialistic wants that’s seemingly over complicated our lives at times over the years? For I’ve been given a fresh chance to re-examine how much stuff we really need in our new home.

Upon further reflection, I might elaborate some practical benefits of a relatively simple lifestyle we’ve strived for in our 2024 travels. So take a look at the following photo collection which reveals some of those  mundane moments we’ve appreciated on the road. 

A hungry farm horse enticed me to pleasurably pet him (her) in exchange for a tasty pellet. (Colorado Springs, Colorado).  

 I watched with interest some young kids engaging  in innocent water play at a harbor side  fountain. (Norfolk, Virginia)

Entering a local diner, I noticed regular customers feeling “right at home” as they grabbed their personal coffee cup on a side wall. (Las Vegas)

A simple text during morning brunch downtown became a favorite way for me to connect with my cousin. (Durham, North Carolina)

Ruth noticed a rainstorm storm approaching by staring beyond this vast field of corn. (Hamden, New York)

Round and round on the carousel we played like children again. (Burlington,Vermont)

A “hunk of car junk” on the prairie  made a nice place to savor artistic beauty. (Amarillo, Texas)

Cook’ em, smell’ em with smoke’ em and we’d eat ‘em at a local grill. (Sedona , Arizona)

Some doors at a peaceful Asian  park made it easy to enter for all. (Norfolk, Virginia)

We never sat on a dirty bench where a seagull landed at the Pacific Ocean. (Morro Bay, California)

I picked out  a pumpkin at Walmart envisioning a way to carve out my favorite Halloween smile. (Avon, Colorado)

An unobstructed viewpoint of a westward sunset provided current traffic information to and from the Rocky Mountains. (Denver, Colorado)