Laying tracks before the train arrives 🚂
Thoughts on having hope (and a touch of audacity).
You might know I’m a sap for books and movies that feature stories of personal growth and transformation, especially those set in foreign lands and places I aspire to go to. Enter: Under the Tuscan Sun. ☀️ I love this story for many reasons, but there is one quote from Martini that has always stuck with me.
Signora, between Austria and Italy, there is a section of the Alps called the Semmering. It is an impossibly steep, very high part of the mountains. They built a train track over these Alps to connect Vienna and Venice. They built these tracks even before there was a train in existence that could make the trip. They built it because they knew some day, the train would come.
I found myself recounting this story to a friend this past week as she was telling me about the business she was starting. She wasn’t entirely sure what she had created or what would come of it, but she was setting down the first tracks. The train would come later.
This image of the train tracks came to mind once more this past week as my husband and I began planning, actually planning, our travel for this fall (after many plans falling through in the past 14 months). There are still many unknowns in play, but our ever-changing circumstances are bringing us more confidence, not less. ✈️ It was the first glimmer of hope I allowed myself to feel and release. Prior to this, I didn’t dare get any hopes up for fear they’d be dashed again. You see, travel is a big part of our lives. It’s also some of the basis for our income. We’ve missed it more than words can tell.
I won’t lay the whole track just yet, but I’m starting to let my mind go there.
There. 📍 Wherever that is.
So perhaps you’re not sure what the train will look like in your own life but you feel prompted to start laying the track. Maybe it’s a new job or relationship, or getting out of a job or relationship. Maybe it’s finally tackling the items on your bucket list (has your list grown longer as mine has?) or moving somewhere new.
Have hope and set that track deliberately, if even audaciously. The train, when it has been invented, certainly can’t make the trip without it.
What’s caught my attention lately… ✨
The New Rules of Gathering, by Priya Parker - A free guide to unlock new and creative ways of spending time together… from an expert on gathering (how cool is that!?)
Check these out too… 🙌
*NEW* Mailing List - Memoir - Talk about laying tracks before the train! Join my list to find out more about the travelogue/memoir coming out Fall 2022.
The Wonders That I Find - My children’s book is now available! 🌿 Got the book? Please leave a review on Amazon.
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