My most recent bought of traveling was a quick jaunt to NYC and back. It was a lovely, lovely trip. A couple other crazy yogis and myself piled into a car after Monday practice to basically go and do more practice on Tuesday. Only difference...we were going to practice with this guy:
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| Okay everyone, now come to a comfortable seat... or...oh, uh..or okay...that. |
That's R. Sharath Jois - the grandson of Patthabi Jois (the late, great, man of action in the Ashtanga world). It was a gorgeous experience: beautiful studio, strong, steady sequence, and breathing in unison with a room full of dedicated people....(well, and that one dude that kept grunting loudly). Ya really couldn't beat it.
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| Nyaw, we're cute. But I have to say, Sharath definitely wins the adorable contest. |
But the trip was more than just a yoga adventure. It was a little taste of travel, which, it seems, I need fairly often in my life. Within my day to day, I appreciate a schedule. Mostly, I
need a schedule because of the hours my passions force me to keep. In the general scheme of things though ... I love to just BE in new places. (Or old places in a new way).
There are so many places I want to go and see and and smell and taste and hear. And, while I certainly love NYC (especially in the Springtime when the variety of Things and People seem to multiply with the warming air), I more often find my interests drawing me towards seeing the things Nature creates.
So here, in no particular order, are some of the things on my list of Need to Do Nature Travels:
These inviting looking tuffets are rocky fossils called Stromatolites. They only exist a few places on the planet, the ones above being in Shark Bay, Western Australia (which is where I want to go to see them). These fossils encode FOUR BILLION years of geological history - including how ancient microorganisms were involved in the evolution of life on earth and helped to shape the earth's environments. Come on, things that offer a portal into "deep time".......okay well, I think it's cool anyway.
This site is a bit more well known. It's the
Barringer Meteor Crater in Arizona. Fifty thousand years old and 4,000ft in diameter. Fucking incredible. What could better illustrate the scope and size of the Universe we live in? Some people find the relative size and importance of human existence disheartening - I find the magnitudes of diversity among the scales of our many worlds absolutely magnificent and incredibly beautiful.
Okay, so I have a thing for EPIC scales. What can I say - it helps keep life in perspective. I'm sure very few things feel as unreal as the
Giant Sequoias found in Western California. Yep, I'd be that tourist at the base of the tree like every other tourist. I'm okay with it.
And finally, good ol' Tonopah, Nevada. The best thing about Tonopah is that there
is nothing good in
Tonopah. It is one of the highest ranked areas in the world for
dark skies at night. Thus, on a clear night you can see the Milky Way, not to mention a huge abundance of stars, with nothing but your eyes. The first time I saw a star-filled sky was last summer in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. I have never seen anything more astounding in my entire life.
Geez, these are just the tip of the iceberg! Of course, I want to go back to India, I definitely want to visit Iceland again (in the winter... hell yes Northern Lights) and about a zillion other places. It might be easier to assemble a list of places I
don't want to go (coughcoughFt.Lauderdale). Alas, my travel plans will have to wait... a bit longer.
Man, it's a good thing I'm such a cheap date - cause at the end of the day, traveling is some of the most expensive taste you can have. [And it is worth every.single.cent.]
