Written by Celine Louie
There are those that are born with a need to travel coursing through their blood, staying in one spot ignites an itch in the soles of their feet that can’t be ignored, propelling them to book tickets and plan journeys to explore far off places. For others contentment comes from staying in familiar surroundings, the comforts of home all that one needs to be happy, an itch easily scratched close to home.
Whilst circumstance can push us in one direction or another, for most the lure of travelling- or not, is in-built, and if you have that itch to go, you can’t just scratch that feeling away.
And so only a few short years ago, the freedom to travel was taken from us.
As the momentum of the plandemic picked up pace, people rushed back to their homelands for fear of what might happen next. Most of the world went back to base, in anticipation of the so-called on coming waves. The travellers put their itch aside, returning to shore whilst waiting for the waves to subside.
Trapped safely in our homes, there came a time a time when many re-evaluated their surroundings, re-thinking what was most important to live a contented life. There came a rush to seek out greater home comforts, which meant different things to different people. For some the call to head out of the cities in search of greater self-sufficiency became a priority, whilst others figured that travelling this beautiful country would help scratch that itch in the meantime, and then there were many of our brave southern friends, who packed up their belongings, and headed north in search of freer lands. Overseas travel was put on the back-burner as other things took priority.
A switch had been flipped and people were pulled in directions they had never planned to go, a re-evaluation of what it meant to live a contented life within the parameters of the newly set boundaries.
Now that our freedoms have kindly been given back to us, we can’t help but look at travel from a different perspective. There is a deeper awareness of what goes on around us, to move freely from one place to another is something that we cherish a little more, and so we should. For freedom is certainly fleeting in this new world of ours.
Whether you have an itch in your feet, or look to home for your souls comfort, there is now a deep call for us all to hold onto the freedom to travel to far off lands.
Whilst the birds and animals continue on their merry way, our humanness dictates to us that we live confined within the rules of society. But when the over-reaching law-makers abuse their power, we have been shown that it is up to all of us to protect our God-given rights. No matter how persuasive the pressure might be, we must hold on tightly to our freedoms, retaining our right to explore all ends of this diverse world that we belong to, should we, or those that follow in our footsteps ever have an itch that needs to be scratched.