{"id":285,"date":"2010-12-24T03:01:00","date_gmt":"2010-12-24T03:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.healingicons.org\/why-we-travel\/"},"modified":"2015-04-13T15:21:52","modified_gmt":"2015-04-13T15:21:52","slug":"why-we-travel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.healingicons.org\/why-we-travel\/","title":{"rendered":"Why We Travel"},"content":{"rendered":"
This Christmas Eve, Santa has arrived in the Houston airport, buzzing around on a golf cart\u00a0appropriately\u00a0adorned for the festive day. We\u2014my husband, our daughter and son, and I\u2014are there, bags packed and ready to fly. We\u2019ve completed the rounds of extended-family Christmas dinners and gift exchanges and are embarking on a journey I have always\u00a0wanted\u00a0to take: We are leaving town for Christmas, joyously skipping out on some of the holiday traditions that frankly feel way more exhausting than fulfilling.<\/p>\n
Our daughter, taking what might be her last significant break as a full-time graduate student,\u00a0suggested that we travel to shake things up. I was elated, but it took some\u00a0convincing\u00a0for my husband to jump on board, and our son was initially pretty annoyed as well. Thankfully, everyone came around. While the upcoming trip made it challenging to schedule our annual\u00a0Christmas\u00a0party, which we\u2019ve been holding for over 20 years with some dear friends, we managed to do it early. No one even noticed that we didn\u2019t have a Christmas tree.<\/p>\n
Taking a break, a pause from traditions that have become stale and unsatisfying, gives us the opportunity to\u00a0breathe new meaning and purpose into the rituals within our lives<\/strong>.\u00a0Occasionally letting go of well-kept traditions and\u00a0throwing caution to the wind with wild abandon can allow us to gather up that delicious inner\u00a0phosphorescence that keeps our lives sparkling with vividness and adventure.<\/p>\n