Prompts for Travelers, Part 2

Questions for returning home, cataloguing souvenirs, and perspective forging

This is a part two in a month of Moon Lists prompts that focus on the idea of elsewhere (read part one here if you missed it, with questions that center around the headspace offered to us while in limbo, locomotion, or in the thick of travel). 

This edition considers the other half of the journey — prompts for returning home.

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A few weeks ago I was at the airport, waiting to board a flight back to LA. I spent some time eavesdropping on a man next to me. (In my defense, he was asking for it while talking on full-volume FaceTime speakerphone in the terminal.)

Anyway, he had a broken leg. It was an injury he had somehow incurred while traveling, and was making plans on the phone with his wife (a dance teacher back in California) about what his recovery process might be like. 

I caught myself waiting for the conversation to turn to an admittance of defeat, stress, and/or worry — when one of them would say something about how terrible this all was, or how unfortunate when our expectations of a future experience dramatically misalign with reality. But it never came. 

As they hung up, he told her, “I can’t wait to hug you.” And for some reason that’s stuck with me. Despite it all, a tenderness for the life you have chosen, waiting for you on the other side. 

1. A Tree Falls in the Woods
Recall an experience that warranted no evidence, no proof, no fanfare…but you’ll remember it nonetheless.

2. (Abstract) Souvenir
Beans on toast. An outfit pairing, observed (i.e., a man dressed entirely in shades of tomato). A scoop of ice cream served with a chilled thimbleful of fernet. A stranger’s specific je ne sais quoi….

Take note of an idea, a pairing, a nugget of intangible ephemera you’ll bring back with you (perhaps to incorporate into your own life or try on for awhile). 

3. Packing Light

As an opposite exercise to the above, identify something you obtained, experienced, and/or felt that is in your best interest to not bring back. Can you release it from your attachment?

To view the complete list of this issue’s Prompts for the Return, we invite you to subscribe to Moon Lists.