Travel is Healing for Me — West Loop Scoop

Gooooood morning! I’ve been quiet on the blog lately but over the next few weeks I’ll be posting more regularly. Today marks Day 1 of my first big trip off work in nearly two years (remember Europe?), and the first big solo trip of this year.

2020’s been a lot. All things considered, I’m grateful. I have supportive friends and family, a cohort of awesome colleagues at work, a great job, a beautiful house in DC with wonderful roommates, and my health.

But I’m also grateful for the chance to reset. Last year I took several trips and I’ve enjoyed the balance of being social and meeting new friends, and relishing the solitude that leads me to more gifts beyond it - a calmer mind, space to consider my thoughts and decisions, learn more about who Taylor is and what she wants. These moments, coupled with getting acquainted to new destinations, learning each city for who she is, what colors her landscape, her people, her music. One of my favorite things ever is to fall in love with a new place.

When I write less, it means I’m spent. As a writer, I cannot perform on an empty tank. When I’m not photographing, it means I’m zapped of energy and as a result, inspiration and ideas. So my goal in stepping away from day to day for a while is to clear my mind and heart. I want to write - I miss the way words feel flowing off my fingertips and onto paper. I want to bring my surroundings to life, so I can share with my people what’s happening before me. And I want to look back at my journals and blog posts, and quality photographs that I shot, and remember the highlights: how that burger tasted at that spot a dear friend recommended I visit, how I felt watching the sun set beyond the Golden Gate Bridge, what it was like to wake up with light streaming into a beautifully decorated tiny house in Portland with a coffee pot waiting below me. Where I was when God unfolded a beautiful new gift of an epiphany for me to see, like a flower.

As for the photographing - I’ve come a long way from the sixteen-year-old wandering Paris with my family, carrying a meager FujiFilm and taking pictures of random things that look back and I’d scratch my head about later, as a grown woman. I’ve spent a decade practicing, pottering about with a camera, and several years learning to edit those pictures I took. I can’t wait to see what scenery seizes me next, and makes me grab my camera and tripod and go sprinting toward a subject.

So….here we go again. ;) Those who know me well know this is woven into who I am. And I am SO excited to see where the Lord meets me, what He’ll show me next. And to do it all with a pretty backdrop the entire way.

In her book “Walking on Water,” Madeleine L’Engel once said, “We don't want to feel less when we have finished a book; we want to feel that new possibilities of being have been opened to us.” This is both a restful and energizing time for me! If you seek a great book affirming the Lord’s presence and holiness in the creative, this one is a beautiful read. As Creator-made creatures crafted in His image, we, too, are made to thrive as we create. That’s a gift that brings tears to my eyes…I GET to bring glory to God by doing what I was made to do!

Today, I land in the morning in Chicago for a long layover. I came here exactly one year ago, and no doubt it’ll be different in a pandemic landscape. Where will I go? What should I do?? It’s totally up to me!

For a snapshot of what to expect, here is my list of destinations until Thanksgiving:

DC > Chicago, for an all-day layover

Chicago > Seattle, where I’ll pick up a rental car

Portland

San Francisco

Los Angeles

San Diego

Raleigh > Asheville (for Thanksgiving)

Asheville >> Knoxville

Knoxville >> DC

If you’ve received this post in an email, you’re on my email list! Welcome to the adventure! Thanks for reading, and stay tuned, for there is much more to come!

Xoxoxo,

Tay

Fisherman’s Bastion, Budapest, Hungary, February 2019