Wanderlust Cafe

Last minute preparations on the eve of a trip to Turkey. In that special time of aggravation, wondering why I’m not more ready, how can all this stuff take so much room and weight and I’m not even bringing everything I want?
And this reluctance to commit to what I am ACTUALLY bringing. There’s always this [...]

I sift through memories and longings and try to discern my intentions for Turkey.
What do I hope to see and do and feel?  Not enough time to fully explore and discover.  I try to send my spirit ahead on this journey so that it will be waiting for me when I arrive.
Leander swimming the Hellespont, [...]

Uncover what you long for, and you will discover who you are.
- Phil Cousineau, The Art of Pilgimage
I don’t know where the wanderlust comes from, just that it has always been part of me.  I believe it comes from the ancestors, who traveled great distances searching for ‘home’.  I search for my own place in [...]

Come, come, whoever you are.
Wanderer, Worshipper, lover of leaving.
It doesn’t matter.
Ours is not a caravan of despair.
Come, even if you have broken your vow a hundred times.
Come, yet again, come, come.
– Rumi
Ah, the wisdom of the Sufi mystic Rumi.  I have much more to say about the love poetry of this long-ago poet.  But not [...]

Somewhere at the crossroads, one finds the Wanderlust Cafe.  A meeting place, a place of respite, a  place to have some exotic tea or a stiff drink, eat fruits and simple food, a place to stow your pack in a safe corner, or lay out a few trade goods for sale.  Listen to foreign tongues, [...]