Category Archives: Travel

Where Are You Going?

I am finally back to the napkins! I took some time off to speak at and attend the BlogWorld LA conference for the first time. Then I headed south to San Diego to visit my father and sister. I am there now, finally with some time to draw.

travel

Travel is much like a life education vs. a formal education. It’s important to never confuse the two. With a formal education and a regimented, organized travel experience, let’s say for business, you need to be sure of what it is you hope to accomplish and what you want to learn. It’s good to have it planned.

But in your life education and in all of your travels, business or not, there is another layer that exists, and that is the layer of not knowing why you are going somewhere or learning something. I don’t mean you have no idea at all, I mean you have to allow that you CAN’T know it all in advance. Your deepest experiences and lessons come to you without your prior knowledge that they are about to arrive. It is those things we couldn’t have anticipated that resonate the deepest.

So, don’t freak out if you don’t know every step of the journey ahead, whether in your education or your travel, If you did, you wouldn’t learn much.

Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily.

Quote by Yogi Berra, 1925-not dead yet, New York Yankee baseball player and manager

>Motivation #2 – Discomfort or Regret?

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Motivation #2 mug
Motivation #2 by NapkinDad
Create custom mugs at Zazzle

My wife and I had a long discussion today about what we might like to do in the future.  We talked about how when we decide to do something new and different we can feel discomfort. Whether it is thinking about traveling somewhere we have never gone, becoming friends with new people, even something as simple as going to a new restaurant or cooking a new meal, it’s easy to feel a bit of discomfort and choose to not go in that new direction so we can avoid that discomforting feeling. 

But, in the end, if that becomes your habit, you stay home, meet no one, do nothing and get filled with regret for a life not lived.  My wife and I don’t want to do that and so we choose to suffer the discomfort because the pay off is so wonderful.  New friends, new experiences and new opportunities to love and care about the people we cross paths with.  That is worth it. 
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Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily

Quote author unknown. After I came home from our breakfast together this quote quickly passed in my twitter feed and I knew it was meant to be my quote for the day. I didn’t catch who posted it, but it’s a great quote. The original said ‘resentment’ instead of ‘regret’ but I liked ‘regret’ better so I changed it.

>Guest Napkin #7 – On My Way Home

>Time to pack it in!  After 5 days on a road trip to Seattle, 2 days there and 3 more in San Diego I am looking forward to home.


The Baby and the Plane of Smiles



Sometimes you hear horror stories about babies on planes. But this one, in the waiting area and on the plane, just made people smile.  Sweet, funny, calm, and not crying.  What more could one ask for!


I am a friendly guy, I like to engage in conversation and like meeting new people. I know some people don’t like doing that on planes and I respect that when I sit next to someone who obviously isn’t into it.  But this time around the person I met added a nice full-circle ending to my trip.


D Seeing the Road Ahead

D noticed me drawing and that got us in a conversation about art, college, majors, etc.  She is a biology major and wants to be a doctor.  She just moved to the west coast, first time away from home.  4 months ago she married her childhood sweetheart, a Marine, stationed at Camp Pendleton in San Diego county.  Talk about a radical, crazy new phase of life!  Although the situation isn’t exactly the same, I started out driving with my daughter to her new home on the west coast where she is going to be building a new life with a new beau.  It will be her first time living completely apart geographically from family and friends. Now I am ending my journey talking to a stranger on a plane who is living a similar story.  I love that.


I parted ways with her in Houston where she was headed and I was continuing on to Tulsa.  I felt good about her chances for a happy life just as I did when I left Chelsea in Seattle the week before.


Now on to Tulsa where I expect to see my wife at the gate waiting for me. Not at the baggage claim, but at the actual gate, like in the old days.  How can that be you ask?  Because, ironies of ironies, my wife is about to go on a business trip to Houston and is taking the exact same plane I am arriving on!  So, I am getting off, kissing her hello, kissing her goodbye and driving home to a household of animals. Not the optimal homecoming but it’s even worse for Linda since she has been the one home working all the while I have been traipsing around the country.


an class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Hello Goodbye



I can’t tell you how much I appreciate and love her for that.  She works really hard in a really stressful job.  She travels more than she likes and for her to have to leave as I arrive does not make her a happy camper. But it was fun to have her at the gate, no doubt!


Marty

>There Are No Yesterdays On The Road

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Day #4 of Vacation Week at The Napkin Dad Daily
I took my daughters to Europe in 2003. We traveled through Germany, Italy, France and Spain for 2 weeks.  We stayed at youth hostels and Bed & Breakfasts.

When we were in Munich, Germany we had beds for 5 in our room and only 4 of us so a single woman from the US joined us.  We knew nothing about her, she knew nothing about us.  We went out to dinner with her and got to discover her as she was, right then.  She was a blank slate, with no yesterdays for us.

We didn’t know if she suffered from depression, with an Eeyore cloud over her head all the time, or if she had been stabbed in the back by her best friend the week before. All we knew was what she decided to present to us that day.

One of the great things about moving away from an old home town, or traveling to a new spot where you spend some time, is that you get to reinvent yourself. You can practice being who you want to be, not who you are expected to be.

But here is the great secret.  Every new encounter you are a blank slate. It doesn’t matter if you are in France or your local dry cleaners.  That person does not know you or your history.  You want to be different than you are in daily life? Then practice on that new person. Be kinder, be more complimentary, be quieter, be less judgmental, be funnier, be happier.  You don’t need to go on vacation to become someone new, you just need to see the opportunities right in front of you.

Before you know it, you will become what you practice, no matter where you are.

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Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily

Quote by William Least Heat Moon, 1939-not dead yet, American writer of native Osage heritage. Writes particularly about travel, including his best seller, Blue Highways, published in 1982, about his journey on the backroads of America.

>Every Perfect Traveler

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Day #4 of Vacation Week at The Napkin Dad Daily

But isn’t this against the whole idea of traveling? That is that you open your mind and allow whatever is really there to come through, instead of creating a vacation of photo ops and prepackaged tours, right?
Yes, that is true, the traveler does need to be open. But the traveler also needs to understand that what is going on when they travel is in their head.  They benefit from being able to provide themselves and others a story of their travels and to do that they must be able to create a narrative. Not just a story of ‘I did this then I did that’, but a story that creates itself as you experience it.  The aromas you notice as you walk, the look of the sky as the sun goes down, the feeling of the humidity or dryness in the air.  You experience your world with awareness is the idea.  You notice and remember.

Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily


Quote by Nikos Kazantzakis, 1883-1957, Greek writer and philosopher. Author of ‘Zorba the Greek’.

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