Enjoying Spiritual Gay Vacations

There seems to be the conception that gay spirituality travel (whatever that means to you) is \”work\”. Nobody wants to work on a vacation. That\’s why we take a vacation in the first place, to get \”away from it all\” for awhile, to escape. We seem to frame the concepts of spiritual and personal growth with thoughts like: \”I need to do this\” or \”I should do that\” because \”it would be good for me\”. With those ideas as a background, it\’s no wonder that so many of us think of spiritual and personal growth as \”work\”. When we\’re on a vacation, we want to leave all the \”need to\’s\” and \”should\’s\” of daily life behind us, for at least a short time.

My experience is that spiritual gay travel is a joy. You meet people with the same mindset and really can connect with them. This level of connection really adds to the enjoyment of being on vacation. The chance to have an honest, heart to heart conversation with someone brings adds tremendously to my vacation experience and I come to value these conversations very much.

Also, somewhere along the way, we seem to have been taught that in order to be spiritually connected to the world, the people around us and to ourselves, we must act in a \”serious manner\”, almost to the point of being somber, or at the very least solemn. Somehow we\’ve come to believe that laughter and play are \”irreverent\”.

When we connect spiritually with others and the world, our vacation is greatly enhanced. Conscious awareness of our surroundings makes a gay vacation more exciting and we can get more out of our travel experience. We become very aware of everything we experience while travelling and as such, we are more fulfilled.

Children are a great example. The world is their playground and everything is a wonder. Joy is found in everything for a child because it is all new and everything is to be played with. To see as though you were a child is a great gift.

And last, but certainly not least, sometimes people confuse the experience of being awestruck as being serious or solemn. When you travel with conscious awareness there can be times when you will be \”deeply moved\” (awestruck) by something you encounter. It could be the hospitality of a family you meet; a genuine smile; the grandeur of a sunrise or simply the revelation that you are blessed to be alive. Personally, even after countless visits to Monument Valley, I am still moved tears while I am there. But these are tears of joy, humility and gratitude.

Proposals for gay travel penned by Howie Holben. Spirit Journeys provides a gay retreats to remember and a gay adventure experience of a lifetime.

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