Elizabeth Gilbert is ON KEY!

"Still, despite all this, traveling is the great true love of my life. I have always felt, ever since I was sixteen years old and first went to Russia with my saved-up babysitting money, that to travel is worth any cost or sacrifice. I am loyal and constant in my love for travel, as I have not always been loyal and constant in my other loves. I feel about travel the way a happy new mother feels about her impossible, colicky, restless, newborn baby--I just don't care what it puts me through. Because I adore it. Because it's mine. Because it looks exactly like me."
~Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love (emphases are my own)

Split open

"Write what disturbs you, what you fear, what you have not been willing to speak about. Be willing to be split open." Natalie Goldberg

"Travel and writing are my two lovers."

Let's try this again.

I have attempted to keep up with a blog a few times now. The first one constituted me rambling about my life, and it had a pretty decent run. The second was created solely to motivate me to write. I showed it to no one, and it slithered into obscurity after my task was complete.

But next week, I set out again. This time -- Spain.

While searching some old emails, I found an update I had written to an old friend. In explaining what I'd been up to, I prefaced: "Travel and writing are my two lovers."

So, perhaps, a blog where I write about my travels will stick. Hopefully this blog will inspire the wanderlust within me, as well as prime the words I hold within myself.

We'll see how it goes.

Next stop: Spain.