It’s that time of year when I begin to get restless and start looking at new and exotic destinations to add to my list of places I must visit soon. But until my next trip, I am resolved to embrace the beauty of remaining in one place with this week’s travel theme, stillness. To start off, some people who make a living out of being still, one in Edinburgh…

…the other in Boston.

They say still waters run deep and they’re not wrong. Lake Atitlan in Guatemala is the deepest lake in Central America. Here’s the spray from our boat dancing in front of us as we disrupt an almost smooth surface of water.

It is pretty hard to catch a hummingbird standing perfectly still – but I’m always amazed at how still their body stays while their wings are flapping a hundred miles an hour.

Hummingbird silhouetted in the blue skies of California

Are you still up for the challenge of creating your own interpretation of this week’s theme? If you would like to join in (everyone’s welcome!) here’s what to do:

• Create your own post and title it Travel theme: Stillness
• Include a link to this page in your post so others can find it too
• Get your post in by next Thursday, as the new travel theme comes out on Friday (unless, of course, I get locked out again!)
• Don’t forget to subscribe to keep up to date on the latest weekly travel themes. Sign up via the email subscription link in the sidebar or RSS.

xxx Ailsa

Be still like a mountain and flow like a river. – Lao Tzu

Nearly everybody I know does something to try to remove herself to clear her head and to have enough time and space to think… All of us instinctively feel that something inside us is crying out for more spaciousness and stillness to offset the exhilarations of this movement and the fun and diversion of the modern world. – Pico Iyer