A Trip To France

In October 2010 I arrived trip from france. To start with, the joy of getting on the last flight that took off from Paris before the airport was closed due to the volcano eruption in Iceland.

One more intense emotion, the last one?

I’m still overwhelmed by everything I lived. Amazes me to realize how so many experiences can happen in such a short period of time…not a big deal considering the calendar, 15 days.

Of course I’m still kind of “dizzy” because of it. Leaving daily routine of home and work, meeting with friends, bills to be paid, doctor appointments and things to be taken care of – a change that affects our lives a lot. Although it does it in a good way… Being in different cities that weren’t familiar, required a constantly checking out on maps of streets, subways and buses. A hassle that would sometimes make us anxious and irritated - sometimes turning it into arguments and even fights between us (a mature couple full of differences in personality). However, I can’t avoid thinking of “the hassle” as one more opening experience to the unknown, sometimes even enigmatic. Something I really appreciate. Being in foreign cities (I can even include the “foreign” ones in my own country, so diverse Brazil is) it is really synonymous with learning many new things – including silly ones like the way to enter in a city, the best subway line to take, what to eat and when to eat; to be dazzled by works of art never seen before (like the paints of Monet at the Marmottan Museum), to find out landscapes with a different nature from the one that surrounds me, beautiful trees such as the peupliers - that don’t exist Brazil -  so well put together along the roads. And more: my curiosity about people from other places led me to read newspapers and buy magazines. So many revealed things! The issues that concern the French people, such as the rules of retirement, the train strike, the foibles of politicians (as always !), the psychoanalysis crisis (they say…), virulent criticisms to the president, published and reviewed books, ads of shows and exhibitions, PHEW! A bunch of unexpected things that touched me by the revealing problems of such a rich and educated people. At other times, I would feel envious of the culture and material exuberance that this same people enjoy.

At last, what do I also want to say talking about all of it? I think I want to convey the unmatchable richness of new and provoking experiences provided by trips to unfamiliar places. As a psychotherapist, I can’t avoid relating them to the possible trip to the inner self that takes place in the psychotherapeutic process. How often fear of the unknown, of multiplicity, of world diversity, hold us from taking a bus, a train or an airplane and go to the encounter of a city, a village, to a road never taken before? And how many times fear keeps us away from ourselves, preventing the connection with our emotions, feelings, memories and experiences. All that if really known and appreciated would allow us a richer life, more fulfilled and less painful. With many more choices. Does it make sense?