Back from the heels of a press trip already I have a strong, potent feeling of restlessness. My traveler's mind needs its WD-40; my story telling powers are already red with rust.

A good trip yields greater friends and memories so powerful they can trigger the nuclear fission of consciousness.

Even before the bags are unpacked, the shirts half–laundered and in their state of limbo, the spirit is already packing for the next trip. This could be virtually anywhere: a mental exercise performed on a cartographer's dartboard, really.

The Gardens of Luxembourg in Paris, misted in rain.

A trip to the Passion Play in Oberammergau, where Method acting and Biblical narrative fuse.

A simple visit to the San Diego Zoo, to watch the pandas in childlike wonder.

The idea of simply cutting the umbilical cord of social and civic responsibility and backpacking until the soul grows cold of travel is not new. It's a very romantic notion, certainly, but definitely not new.

But what IS new to me is the idea of channeling the mental restlessness. Each day, I am trying to channel my mental energies into a quasi-monastic state. To live and travel like a monk, appreciating the wild flowers of a journey for what they are but equally mindful of the carefully-pruned roses in a vase on your dinner table calls for enormous quantities of mental clarity and focus.

It is during these moments that I try to just let it go, and try not to fuss too much with "creating a piece of pottery." The clay will form whatever shape it will, but the mind just has to be clear and willing.

In the aftermath of a journey studded with encounters, there comes a period of silence, a period of mourning for the next shape-shifting experience. I am in that limbo now, sometimes sure of where the next direction will be, but often letting the mental Forrest just run. Past the harvested corn fields, thinning scarecrows, bouquets of Cinderella pumpkins…until the energy is just a raw beam of travel light.

Often, good tales require a nice, stiff aging process.

Tell me, do you take a long time to craft your posts? Or do they just honey out in a matter of minutes?

- Charu Suri

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