Wanderlust

The Way is a movie starring Martin Sheen written and directed by his son Emilo Estevez. It tells the story of a man who must travel to France to obtain the remains of his only son who died hiking the El camino de Santiago or The Way of Saint James. Once in Spain it is an 800Km (nearly 500 miles) journey that ends in the city of Santiago de Compostela. The movie is heartfelt as the father takes up the son's journey and walks the path his son had planned to walk spreading his ashes along the way.

If you have even the slightest hint of wanderlust within you this movie is sure to ignite it. These types of movies always set me on a precarious path. Movies about travel spark the imagination and make me long to strap on my hiking boots and just go. They make me wish to be anything other than I am. They make me want to be the person who can do that who can put aside the burden placed by society to act a certain way, to be a certain thing, to contribute a certain amount.

Yet I am who I am. Bound all the more fiercely because I'm aware of the ties that hold me to this place, to this job, to this corporate 5 year program. To the idea of a house and a husband and a white picket fence. Must I choose one or the other though?

So it goes round and round always asking the questions of myself and hoping, yearning for a different answer. Maybe one day the wanderlust will be freed and I will spend days or weeks or months or years with nothing holding me back and only the sound of the soft tread of my feet on the earth and the quiet of woods or the whisper of the wind or the murmur of a stream.