Corinne Baroni’s 2023 Great Ideas Tour Blog Update- More Posts to Come in Fall 2023
- June 5th, 2023
- in Uncategorized
Hello from the train en route from Munich to Berlin!
I am now 10 days into my Great Ideas Tour, and it has been absolutely incredible already. I had the draft of the blog post for the first leg of my trip to London, Amsterdam, and Paris about 80% complete, but I’ve had a little mishap… I brought my iPad and a wireless keyboard along with me for keeping up the blog and reading e-books. When I had a 3-hour layover in Frankfurt Thursday, I accidentally left the keyboard connected to my locked iPad, so as I walked around the city, the keyboard kept inputting nonsense passwords into the iPad – long story short, I locked myself out of my iPad, so that draft is on hold until I can connect my iPad to my laptop back in the States (so until mid-August).
I could of course rewrite the blog – with such unforgettable experiences, it wouldn’t be hard to do. I’ve already met such kind and inspiring people and been so moved by the beauty, history, richness, and culture of enjoyment present here during my travels in the last week and a half, and I can’t believe I have several more weeks to take it all in. I really couldn’t be more thankful.
I wrote something along these lines in the currently locked blog draft that will one day hopefully be recovered and released: my intention for my Great Ideas Tour is to enjoy slowly. One aspect of my time in Europe that I have enjoyed the most so far is the change of pace. For example, meals are savored rather than rushed, every building and cobblestone contains careful detail and history, and art is everywhere. So far, I have had the opportunity to lean into the present moment with all I have and all I am, and I am loving it!
And so, in a way, the locking of the iPad is a blessing in disguise. I’ve always been full of ambition: in my studies, in my goals, and in my creativity. I love to experience, and I love to share experiences. I ambitiously set out to keep a full blog and simultaneously have a full experience, but now I see why travel blogging is a full-time job for many people. Maintaining a blog during my travels was a loftier goal than I expected, especially considering the way that I tend to function and that words are extremely powerful to me. Each word choice is like a color on a palette with each sentence acting as an intentional stroke in the piece of written art. My personal art (journal) is spontaneous — like doodles of bears in the margins of class notes, little inside jokes and reminders to myself — but the writing I share and publish is like the paintings I choose to frame. It’s a reflective, crafted story that takes time.
And something I’ve learned about myself over the years is that as much elation as I find through spontaneity, I tend to do the deep processing over time. Put another way, I love to be fully in the present moment and then chew on things for a long time, exploring and savoring every flavor of emotion and morsel of meaning. And so hopefully you can see that it is hard to do this metaphorical savoring while I am literally running all over the world!
Therefore, I’ve decided to delay the publication of my blogs until I return to the States. I will of course still be keeping a journal and record of my time and reflections, but because sometimes the full significance of experiences takes me a while to digest, I have chosen to delay the publication of this Great Ideas Tour blog by giving the experiences some time to age (like fine wine, I hope!) and prioritizing being present during the gift of the time I have abroad.
This is an exercise for me in letting go of expectations and allowing myself to be in the now. I believe this is something Dr. Ramsey would have been pleased to hear, as he spent his life loving, serving, and learning at every opportunity, but much of his legacy came to light over time. I am choosing to let myself be guided my his spirit of adventure and will have plenty of time to reflect and share as time goes on.
Thank you so much for understanding, and please be assured that the blog will come, just all in good time! Until then, I will be embracing “erin stappen” (Dutch for step into it) by stepping fully into each moment of this trip.
Please enjoy a couple photos from London, Amsterdam, Paris, Brussels, and Munich. More to come this Fall. 🙂
(Sorry they’re out of order, this would have been easier from the iPad but from my phone it’s the best I can do!)
