wanderlust...

break me out tonight,

I wanna see the sun rising anywhere but here
~The Rescues

Sometimes when I least expect it, it hits me in wave after overwhelming wave... the desperate need to get up, get out... to get anywhere. It's not so much that I'm dissatisfied with my life as it is a sudden realization of just how big the world is, and just how little I've actually seen of it. And how little time there really is for us to see and experience as much as they we want to in our all-too-brief lifetime.

I want to be there, be everywhere, witnessing grand landscapes and small wonders and cities bursting at the seams. I want to see the Pyramids, I want to climb Macchu Piccu and stand on top of volcanoes, looking down into the great abyss and the wide world below, feeling minuscule and insignificant and more alive than I've ever been.

I want to be dumbstruck by architecture in Istanbul and smile as I gaze down at a crack in the pavement in Hong Kong and see a tiny sprout of grass growing there. I want lush jungles and arid deserts, fields brimming with wildflowers and forests so thick it seems forever night. I want dizzying mountain peaks and endless oceans stretched out before me.

I want to run off and join the circus, to be kidnapped by pirates and live amongst them and become their queen. I want to be swept away by a gypsy caravan and play the tambourine in their nomadic band while I dance by the firelight. I want to just get in my car and drive, drive for days until I'm hopelessly lost, but somehow feel found.