Muir Motivations

John Muir, an naturalist crucial to the creation of the American National Parks, was born in Dunbar, Scotland in 1838.  I have "Dunbar" cousins so we stopped there for lunch on the 2nd day of our 2-week Scotland road trip this summer.  

Situated on the southeastern coast, Dunbar Castle, once crucial to shipping and defenses, isn't much more than ocean-lapped bricks and rocks these days.  It was the most "ruined" of any castle we've visited in the UK.

Dunbar seems to be a respectable place to live, but I could see how one could yearn for more -- especially over 150 years ago in John Muir's time.

In addition to being a nature-loving explorer, Muir was also an accidental poet and often expressed his love of the land in his journals.  He famously wrote,

"The world's big and I want to have a good 

look at it before it gets dark."

His words best describe my earliest memorable dream.  For me it was a pure instinct.  I was old enough to realize the world was a big interesting place yet young enough to not be concerned with how I might actually manage seeing it.  

Earth was swirls of color, 

and new yet old, 

and enticingly unknown yet inexplicably familiar.

Honestly, in recent months I've had an internal battle raging over how I should share our experiences here. 

 

I want to scream from the rooftops "I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS IS MY LIFE! I'M LIVING MY DREAM!"

But I know how rare some of these experiences are and I'm sensitive to that fact.  

Well, I'm going to continue to trust that my enthusiasm and openness comes from a place of joy, appreciation, and shared curiosity about the world and its history.  

I will share in an effort to "bring you along" on this journey and also to better remember it for myself and my family. 

I know we won't be here forever... and I know that my dreams and adventures won't stop with resuming an American address.  

But for the mean time, I'm going to keep seeking out the color in this European leg of our journey and using it to paint you a picture of parts of the world that you might like to see one day. 

Or maybe even inspire you to learn more about or visit those places of your dreams.

Because Muir's right -- the world is big and we can all use a little help getting a look at it before it gets dark.

**All photos taken in August in Dunbar, Scotland**