Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio Good Morning.
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: tip is to make a pilgrimage to a place that
Speaker 1: is significant to you. Doing so can make your leisure
Speaker 1: time feel a lot more purposeful. For centuries, people have
Speaker 1: visited places of religious significance, places like the Western Wall
Speaker 1: or Mecca, to name a few. People make these trips
Speaker 1: because they believe that visiting those places will deepen their
Speaker 1: devotion and help them feel part of the community of
Speaker 1: faithful people through the ages. But places don't need to
Speaker 1: be religious to feel significant. There are many other reasons
Speaker 1: a place can feel important, and taking the time and
Speaker 1: effort to visit can give a sense of purpose to
Speaker 1: travel or to discretionary time. I'm in general, so it
Speaker 1: might be worth making a pilgrimage somewhere as one of
Speaker 1: your next trips, or even as a weekend event. For instance,
Speaker 1: maybe your ancestors lived somewhere that you would like to visit.
Speaker 1: Years ago, I visited the little town in the Netherlands
Speaker 1: where my grandfather lived. You might go find the town
Speaker 1: where your great grandmother was born and visit the church
Speaker 1: where she was baptized and married. Even if you can't
Speaker 1: get that precise, you might know that family members were from,
Speaker 1: say Sicily. As you wander around the general area, you'll
Speaker 1: know that you are probably seeing the same landscape that
Speaker 1: they saw. That can be an awe inspiring feeling. Of course,
Speaker 1: you don't have to visit sites from just your own
Speaker 1: family's past. Maybe you are fascinated by a particular period
Speaker 1: of history. It might be worth visiting the beaches of Normandy,
Speaker 1: or the Edmund Pettis Bridge in Selma or Ellis Island.
Speaker 1: See where other people's courageous actions created the life we
Speaker 1: live today. Other pilgrimages may be more personal rather than
Speaker 1: religious or historical. Did you love Laura Ingalls Wylder's Little
Speaker 1: House Books when you were a kid. Go on a
Speaker 1: road trip and visit places depicted in her books. Did
Speaker 1: you learn to cook from the Moosewood Cookbooks? Travel to
Speaker 1: Ithaca and eat at the Moosewood Cafe and reconnect with
Speaker 1: your twenty something self. Place is meaningful, and the truth
Speaker 1: is that most of us are going to travel somewhere
Speaker 1: in the next year or so. I'm all about seeing
Speaker 1: exciting sites and relaxing, but connecting with an interest can
Speaker 1: make for a good mix when added to these other things.
Speaker 1: If you normally take vacations with your family, maybe you
Speaker 1: could do a weekend trip to a site of interest,
Speaker 1: or maybe there's even something nearby and accessible. You love
Speaker 1: model trains and you find out there's an elaborate disy
Speaker 1: display at a store two hours from your house. What
Speaker 1: a great place for a Saturday pilgrimage. You'll spend Saturday
Speaker 1: doing something, so why not spend Saturday seeing something that
Speaker 1: will delight you and touch on a part of your identity.
Speaker 1: So think about what inspires you and intrigues you, think
Speaker 1: about the places that are important for those things, and
Speaker 1: then think about how you can get yourself there. Doing
Speaker 1: so will probably make for sharper memories than just doing
Speaker 1: the same thing over again. In the meantime, this is Laura.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of
Speaker 1: our time. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've
Speaker 1: got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach me at
Speaker 1: Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a
Speaker 1: production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit
Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to
Speaker 1: your favorite shows.