Wandering Wednesdays: Travel Notes

Last year while at boarding school, a few things happened. The first is that I became a tea drinker. I had always liked tea before, but the readily-accessible hot water in the cafeteria and the swirling mist that cloaked the mountain combined to make me someone who craved a warm cup of Chai or Green or Earl Grey a few times a day.

The second thing that happened was this: I became lonely. I became beaten down and tired and sad and exhausted and hopeless. So when I bought my first box of Yogi tea and realized that each of the bags had little quotes attached to them, I began to look forward to them. They were bright flashes of inspiration, of hope, and I would carry the ones I liked around with me all day.

The third thing that happened because of boarding school was that I began traveling a lot. I had three breaks during the year, and between flying home at the beginning of each break and returning to school at the end, I felt like I was in the airport a lot. A few days before one of my flights home, I made myself a cup of Yogi tea and really loved the quote attached to the tea bag: "There are three values: Feel good, be good and do good."

I think that what struck me about it was the simplicity. There is something so beautiful about the idea of being good. Being worthy. A person who makes other people's lives better. This idea--so simple, so fundamental--is surprisingly easy to forget in our modern world. We place emphasis on other values. I don't think that I need to list them off, but I will anyway. Money. Success. Talents. Possessions. Reputation.

So I liked the idea of there being only three values. Feel good. Be good. Do good.

A few days later, sitting on a flight bound for New Mexico, I had an idea. Why not share this quote that I loved with other people?

I took a piece of paper from my notebook and copied the quote onto it. Then I folded it and put it into the seat pocket in front of me, in the hopes that another traveler would find it and be inspired by it, if only for a moment.

Since then, I have heard of other people doing this: leaving postcards with messages on them in public places, folding notes inside of books before they return them to the library, placing their favorite magazine on a bus seat so that someone else will find it.

I think that there's something lovely and mysterious about this. I will never know if someone found that first note, or any of the notes that I have left afterwards. And if someone did, that person will never know who left the note. They will only know that someone wanted them to find it.

I think that's kind of beautiful.

Before I leave for Scotland, I plan to write out a few notes to leave on the plane and in buses or restrooms or wherever else some traveler might find them.

What about you-- Have you ever left a travel note before? If you haven't, what would yours say?

(Image one here--another of my favorite Yogi tea bag quotes. Image two here.)