JAMES PRIBRAM:Clarity in Chile

The more I travel, the more I look back on my trips with clarity.

Clarity in the sense that when I get home the more the trip just seemed like a dream and maybe in some regard it is dream. A dream that begins with the fact that I am able to visit such cultures like Chile, were they use oxen to move their small fishing boats in and out of the ocean.

It’s a dream to experience a culture that is not only so pristine but one that remains simple in the ways of life — a man and woman holding hands and picking grapes off a tree with a smile.

I saw men riding magnificent-looking horses to get from point a to point b, riding down a dirt road. Another man who must have been in his 70s was herding sheep with all his might after a car spooked the sheep.

These moments I watch in awe.

Watching and knowing that in some parts of the world life is still lived in a very sincere and simple way.

It’s a dream to walk alone in my thoughts without another set of footprints on the beach.

I quietly walk alone, only to stare at the 55-degree water that has been whipped up by a howling offshore wind — making it even colder.

Periodically, I stop to look at my footprints, recalling my life and my own path that I have forged. Life’s newest technology enables us to do more and more and go faster and faster. Yet sometimes it just feels like we’re going too fast.

Take a moment or two and enjoy those simple everyday pleasures.

Peace.