A Journey or a Trip?

I was overcome with a wave of nostalgia the other day as I drove into Calgary on the 1A highway from Cochrane. I remembered moving here in the mid 1970s when the stretch of highway between Calgary and Cochrane was just a country road devoid of the housing developments that now line much of its path. Thirty plus years ago there were just half a dozen houses west of Eamon’s motor court, a 50’s style motel that was looking a little tired even then but was still open for business. At least that’s the way I remember it.

Now suburban Calgary has moved out as far as 12 Mile Coulee Road and houses cling to the hillside like the pueblos of New Mexico. The only sign of the old roadway is the faded Eamon’s sign, surrounded by cars from a local dealership. Its buildings are gone but the sign stands – a lone beacon from the past.

That wave of nostalgia – memory tinged with sadness – got me thinking about whether my upcoming wanderings are a journey or a trip. Am I just taking a vacation trip to visit people and sites? Is the old hippie in me just fulfilling a desire to get a van and hit the road? Or is there something much deeper going on here?

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I have just completed four years of theological study. Those four years were a journey into that which gives meaning to our lives, the “something more” human beings seek out to explain and illuminate our existence. It is a journey that, once started, never stops.

As I’ve pondered this trip vs. journey, I’ve come to realize that leaving the comfortable life I know and living simply as I travel is really as much about continuing the journey to look for meaning in the mundane, to recognize the essence of God in everything and everyone, as it is about visiting and sightseeing.

And the old hippie in me can’t resist saying, “This journey should be quite a trip!”