These thoughts were scribbled in a notebook while on a plane to Connecticut a few weeks ago. I was set on getting back to the ocean and reflecting on how I could feel connected to a big giant body of water I rarely ever encountered.
I am a traveller. Seeing the world and experiencing new places makes me feel most alive. Seeing something, learning something, creating something...could all be followed by the word NEW.
So stumbling across the idea to "seek depth, not breadth" with a jolting eloquence stopped me in my tracks and immediately created a question; how to get out of the race for constant new discovery, and instead seek out deeper connections with what we have already found?
For me depth always starts with forming a connection with people. I feel I need to fight the impulse to define the people in my life, and instead recognize the depth and complexity of each person I encounter. Allow people to surprise me and continuously build a new and evolving relationship. Secondly, I think depth can be found by taking the time to appreciate the connectivity of everything around us. Then the "new" does not necessarily mean the unknown, but rather becomes a fresh extension of past experiences. Lastly, I think to really get to "know" any place, person, thought, idea...the key is to give it time.
So while I will forever be a traveller at heart, a constant pulse pulling me to experience a new landscape, I will move towards depth. Life can't simply be a breadth of check-marks of a bucket list.
Maybe it is more like the ocean, even in a lifetime we couldn't encounter all her mysteries, yet even though you are encountering something new with each experience, it is also a journey back to our origins, where life began.
