Emily Conrad's Blog, page 25

Surprise!

Surprise! I'm trying something new. Which might go without saying as I don't usually post on Fridays.

Over on Twitter, I've noticed the hashtag #fmfparty and finally got curious enough (you know, because of all the fabulous writers participating) that I went and checked it out.

Five Minute Friday is a weekly writing challenge/community hosted by Kate Motaung where you write for five minutes on a one-word prompt. You can learn about the details here. You can find the link up for this week here.

This week's prompt is: surprise.

As I toyed the idea of writing my post, I grabbed my notebook and a pen. I went for it, but because I was writing it out, it's probably shorter than it could've been. The dash is where time ended... mid-thought, of course!


I was surprised when people started to react to my writing.

Up until recently, for the most part, I wrote for myself. I shared it with a few chosen friends, family, and critique partners.

Still, I am by no means famous or successful (monetarily speaking) as a writer. Writing is something I do alone at my computer in the company of two sleeping dogs. I email out contest entries and submissions, I have the occasional short story published. I post to my blog.

And I never see someone click a link, open a document, or pick up an anthology.

Maybe that's why it floors me when someone says something I wrote spoke to them.

Oh. You're carrying around a part of my heart in your own.
__

We don't know each other. But we do. We so do.

This helps give new focus to my writing. I feel a little less like I'm writing for the wall behind my computer and a little more like I'm writing something I get to share with a wonderful community.

But you know, writing has surprised me in another way recently, too. As I look back on the words my own hands have typed, those words surprise me. And because of that, I'm forced to admit this writing thing is bigger than me and powered by Someone other than me. Better than me.

Given that I can do nothing without Christ and everything with Him, that part--the God part--of writing isn't really a surprise, now, is it?

This post is linked up with Five Minute Friday on Kate Motaung's blog.

Paint by Number Identity

Liking words and liking spreadsheets are not mutually exclusive. I learned in my call center days that I love a good spreadsheet. Don't even get me started on color-coded conditional formatting.

Now that I write full time, I find other ways to apply this love. I've made spreadsheets to record and predict how big my puppy is getting, to manage my budget, to track my novel word count, and more.

Even if I don't have a spreadsheet for it, there are some numbers I watch very carefully.

Am I a worthwhile writer? Let me check how many pageviews I'm getting.

Am I pretty? Let me check the scale.

Am I rich? Let me check the bank account.

I look at those orderly, black and white numbers, and I figure that's it. It's the result. It's a fact. That's the number I produced by my hard (or halfhearted) efforts. I deserve that number, so I print it off, pin it to my shirt, and wear it like a Miss America sash or a red letter, depending on what that number happens to say.

I'm reminded of David and his census.

Then Satan stood against Israel and incited David to number Israel.
1 Chronicles 21:1, ESV

What forces are inciting me to tie my identity to a number? And how about you?

The truth is, God doesn't call us by number. He calls us by name. Our identity was never supposed to be about what scores we could earn from scales, bank accounts, and platforms. It's about the identity Jesus gives us.


Maybe that's why I find a better identity for myself when I turn away from the numbers by writing. With a pen in my hand, I end up someplace truer than I started. I uncover more of the lies I'm telling myself, I apply my faith to situations where I hadn't paused to do so in the past, and I remember God's love and truth.

Writing often leads me back to the words of my Creator, the best place for all of us to find our identities.

If you, too, struggle with identity and labels, take a look with me at some numbers and words we'd be wise to remember in our quest to relabel ourselves.


(All verses taken from the NET version of the Bible.)

Number: 43:1 Words: Protected, Called, His

Isaiah 43:1, Now, this is what the Lord says, the one who created you, O Jacob, and formed you, O Israel: “Don’t be afraid, for I will protect you. I call you by name, you are mine."

Number: 43:4 Words: Precious, Special, Loved

Isaiah 43:4, Since you are precious and special in my sight, and I love you, I will hand over people in place of you, nations in place of your life.

Number: 43:10 Words: Witness, Servant, Chosen

Isaiah 43:10, "You are my witnesses,” says the Lord, “my servant whom I have chosen, so that you may consider and believe in me, and understand that I am he."

Notice he identifies us by tying us to himself and reminding us of who he is? That's vital.

The better we understand who he is, the better we understand who we were created to be.

God and his love for us are constant. Our value was never meant to fluctuate with numbers.


Isaiah 43:15 says, "I am the Lord, your Holy One, the one who created Israel, your king."

One. That's a pretty simple number.

Directions to the Beautiful Somday

My sister's roommate got a puppy a couple of weeks ago, and my sister asked me for some training tips. I offered the help I had and ended by stressing that they wouldn't see an overnight change but that if they kept working at it, one day, they'd realize his behavior had improved.

This advice applies to a lot more than just dog training.

Each time you work toward a goal is a drop in a bucket. Eventually, it fills up; you have what you've aimed for.


My husband and I purchased our house in 2003 or 4 and remodeled it completely. Recently, I looked back at pictures of our house from back then and realized how far we'd come since we'd "finished" fixing up the house.

We added a patio, a front walk, a privacy fence, a shed, landscaping, new flooring, different paint, and custom-made furniture.

Each of those actions was a drop in the bucket. Now, the bucket is full. We have a home we're proud of that we're able to sell in order to move on to the next thing.


So, though the idea of starting over in a new house was a bit overwhelming, I realized that it's not about doing everything all at once. It's about taking one step at a time, and building something worthwhile in the long run while enjoying what I have in the short run. It's about putting drops in the bucket.

Puppy training, home ownership, writing, career... Come to think of it, crochet is like that, too.

When I start a complicated pattern, I have to blindly follow the directions as best I can for the messy first rows before I see the pattern emerge. This struck me so deeply that I used it in a novel, applying it to life. Hopefully someday, you'll get to read that, but for now, I'm still taking my writing career one stitch--one drop in the bucket--at a time.

At the moment, though I love that novel and want to see it on shelves (or better yet, in hands!), I'm content right where I am. I'm on my way, and I know God has a plan.

My sights aren't on tomorrow. I'm aiming for the beautiful someday when the bucket will overflow.

Yours will, too. Keep at it. Sometimes, you'll be dripping just one droplet of water into your goals at a time. Sometimes, progress will pour down. Persist in what God's called you to, and someday you'll look back and realize just how full your life has become.

What dreams or goals are you working toward? How do you find encouragement to persevere?

Hey, it's possible

I am struck today by the possibilities that surround me, that fill each of our lives. It's a theme that's woven into my life so thoroughly, now that I'm paying attention, I see it everywhere. I started looking because of this verse:

When you did awesome things that we did not look for, you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.

Isaiah 64:3, ESV

"Awesome things" aren't necessarily good things.

On the vacation in Banff National Park, Canada, where I took the photos in this post, we arrived at Lake Louise. Shortly after, we heard a noise like thunder. Later, we learned the noise had been a rock slide. From a distance, it was safe, but up close, it could've been life-ending, as the signs around the area warned. Really think about it. Can you imagine the power it'd take to make a mountain quake?

Some of the verses surrounding Isaiah 64:3 lament the state of Israel's relationship with God. They'd wandered again and were suffering the consequences. Especially because the "awesome things" God did weren't things they weren't looking for, I began to think it could possibly mean great acts of divine punishment.

But still, Isaiah 64:1-2 assured me that these awesome things could also be good:

Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence--as when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil--to make your name known to you adversaries, and that the nations might tremble at your presence! (ESV)

They wouldn't be asking for God to come unless they expected good from him. And the Bible assures us that his people can expect that he will be working on their behalf. So what are these awesome things he does in our lives that we don't look for? What mountains shake in his presence?

Jesus can cast out the mountain of sin and in its place raise up a mountain of salvation. God loves us while we are yet sinners. Before we start looking for him, he's seeking and loving our souls.

The mountain of hurt quakes before him, too. There have been times when I've written off a relationship as ruined or toxic only for God to bring about circumstances that gave healing where I wasn't even interested in asking for it.

The mountain of comfort zones tumbles into the sea at his command, too. We're rarely looking for that to happen. If it weren't for God breaking me out of my comfort zones, I wouldn't be writing full time. He brought me here one step at a time in ways I wasn't looking for.

When you serve a God who loves you and whose very presence causes mountains to quake, the world fills with possibilities. They float on the cool spring air. They surface in the journey to sell one house and move into a new one. They develop in the lives of family and friends.

Remember, we serve a God who can do more than we ask or think. And not only can he, he does.

What mountains have you seen trembling?

Trading a House for Faith

In the yard out the window to my right stands something that makes me both a little hopeful and a lot uncomfortable every time I see it: a for sale sign.

My husband and I are moving on from our 425 square-foot tiny house after spending the first twelve years of our marriage here. We remodeled this little house from top to bottom, inside and out, and we were content here until a month or two ago. Even now, as the idea of moving is rapidly materializing into reality, the decision to leave this home has us both a little unsettled.

This little house is packed with memories. We know the work that's been done to it, and we know its quirks. I carefully curated the flowers that grow in the yard. We are used to the tiny mortgage payments. And now we're leaving all that.

It's a scary thing to leave the solid for the unknown. Yet, that's exactly what God calls us to do. In this case, he's done it gently. He let us get uncomfortable here. He changed our neighborhood. He presented us with opportunities that prompted us to start asking, "What if?" He lined up one step and then the next.

Now that we're taking those steps, however, I feel a bit like I'm running down a hill at out-of-control speeds. All these steps are lined up and we just seem to be falling into them, one after the other, and when we land, will we be someplace safe and happy and better?

I'm not sure how everything will work out. At this point, we've listed our house and we're looking at others. We could be somewhere new in just a couple of months. It could all be decided in just a couple of days or weeks. Or, maybe this tumble down the hill will slow and we'll still be here next fall. Only God knows.

As I feel the uncertainty of that, I'm grateful. I don't often enough acknowledge how completely I must trust God.

In my comfortable life, I tend to act like I've got it all under control. This situation has reminded me that I do not.

I'm helpless. I don't know what I'm doing. I don't know how it'll turn out. I'm hungry for reassurances, and that hunger has brought me to a place of trusting and seeking my Savior anew.

That's exactly where he wants me.

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest."

~ Words of Jesus, Matthew 11:28, NET

Notice, he doesn't say, "Stay where you are, and I'll give you rest." Jesus challenges us to come, to leave our comfort zones, and to follow him in order to find rest. It's counter-intuitive. Shouldn't staying in one place be more restful? Yet it's not.

Following Jesus looks different outwardly in one life and one season of life compared to another. Sometimes, we're called to physically move. Always, coming to and following Jesus means keeping our faith squarely on our Savior.

When we do, the promise is that he will give us rest. Not he might or he could or he'll consider giving us rest. He. Will.

I am reading Desiring God by John Piper (have been for a while, actually...), and I started the chapter on prayer over the weekend. Piper talks about how helpless we are and how God desires to do for us the things we can't do for ourselves. He wants us to bring those things to him in prayer so he can show his power and glory in doing them. We come to him, and he does the work while we rest in him.

Does this mean God's going to get me a million dollar house for the meager offerings of my budget? You never know! Okay, no, I'm not praying for that. But it does mean he's got this. It means even if I don't get what I want, I'll get what he wants, and that'll be better. It means the outcome will be for his glory and the good of his people (including me!). It means he's leading us through this roller coaster to show his goodness and his ability to provide. It means I can sit back and enjoy the ride. And, actually, the more I do that, the less of a roller coaster this will be.

And we know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose

~Romans 8:28, NET

I don't have to worry. I can rest.

He already has a plan, and it is good, and I'm so grateful.

What circumstances has God used to stretch you recently?

The cure for draining and unrewarding platform building

It's easy to become a selfish platform builder. Writers have to guard their time at the computer, and it takes less time to tweet, post, and blog if they don't have to read what others are tweeting, posting, and blogging. The trouble is, that means asking for something from a community without taking part in it.

Though I didn't want to be a selfish builder, as I started working on my platform, I realized I was walking a pretty fine line. I wasn't often enough the kind of reader that I wanted to attract myself to my own writing.

What a loss. Writers gain inspiration and food for thought from reading each other's blog posts. Whether a person has a small platform or a large one, sharing another author's posts both exposes more people to a good author and encourages that author. Comments encourage the original writer of a post and other readers. That's part of being in a community and participating in the conversation. It's mutually encouraging.

I know from experience that failing to be an active part of this encouraging community renders platform building a draining and unrewarding task.

However, I've made some connections with people who are really good at building up other writers. They are the treasure I've found in this whole platform building journey. Not only do they encourage me in my writing, but their example has inspired me to be a better encourager myself.


These people, many of them writers themselves, seek out and actively follow other authors. They comment. They share and retweet and like. Building up the community is a priority.

Do they have time to do this for every writer they cross paths with? No, I'm sure they don't. But when someone's writing resonates with them, they'll use their platform to make it known.

It's my goal to emulate them. Though I'm still learning, I already know platforms are stages with more than enough room to share. I also know that writing, whether it's novels or blogs, is hard work.

If I can bring joy to someone else who's also doing this kind of work, I want to do it. If the people who follow me could be encouraged by someone else's message, I want to share it.

I want to become a generous encourager. When I do so, my focus shifts off building a platform and onto using whatever platform I have in the best possible way. That takes a lot of pressure off of me and benefits others. A win-win.

If you're feeling drained and unrewarded in your quest for a platform, consider shifting your focus, too.

In the spirit of sharing the work of writers I admire, I'm creating a Twitter list of some I really appreciate. Here's the link. You can subscribe to the list and/or go through and follow the writers you see there. Enjoy!

By the way, this applies to other areas of life, too. Wherever we have a sphere of influence, let us use it to build each other up. Let's look for people to encourage in our churches, our families, and our neighborhoods. There are so many out there who need a kind word or a friendly gesture. Let's go out of our way to compliment, include, and appreciate.

What are your tips for balancing platform building with encouraging others?

The treasures I found while platform building

It's easy to become a selfish platform builder. Writers have to guard their time at the computer, and it takes less time to tweet, post, and blog if they don't have to read what others are tweeting, posting, and blogging.
As I started working on my platform, I realized that, though it was important to me to not be selfish, I was walking a pretty fine line. I was being selfish in that I wasn't the kind of reader of others' writing that I wanted to attract myself. Or at the very least, I wasn't that reader as often as I could've been.

What a loss. Writers gain inspiration and food for thought from reading each other's blog posts. Whether a person has a small platform or a large one, sharing another author's posts both exposes more people to a good author and encourages that author. Comments encourage the original writer of a post and other readers. That's part of being in a community and participating in the conversation. It's mutually encouraging.

I know from experience that failing to be an active part of this encouraging community is draining and unrewarding.

I've made some connections through social media with people who are really good at building up other writers. They are the best treasure I've found in this whole platform building journey. Not only do they encourage me in my writing, but their example has inspired me to be a better encourager myself.



These people, many of them writers themselves, seek out and actively follow other authors. They comment. They share and retweet and like.

Do they have time to do this for every writer they cross paths with? No, I'm sure they don't. But when someone's writing resonates with them, they'll use their platform to make it known.


It's my goal to emulate them. Though I'm still learning, I already know platforms are stages with more than enough room to share. I also know that writing, whether it's novels or blogs, is hard work.

If I can bring joy to someone else who's also doing this kind of work, I want to do it. If the people who follow me could be encouraged by someone else's message, I want to share it.

I want to become a generous encourager. When I do so, my focus shifts off building a platform and onto using whatever platform I have in the best possible way. That takes a lot of pressure off of me and benefits others. A win-win.

If you're feeling drained and unrewarded in your quest for a platform, consider shifting your focus, too.

By the way, this applies to other areas of life, too. Wherever we have a sphere of influence, let us use it to build each other up. Let's look for people to encourage in our churches, our families, and our neighborhoods. There are so many out there who need a kind word or a friendly gesture. Let's go out of our way to compliment, include, and appreciate.

What are your tips for balancing platform building with encouraging others?

Praying for the impossible. And then some.

For my Perfectionism's Antidote post last week, I tried to look not only at the individual verses I referenced but also at the verses surrounding them. One of those verses was Ephesians 3:20. I had more or less paraphrased the King James version in the post.  Here's the actual:

Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. Ephesians 3:20-21, KJV

God is able to abundantly exceed all that we ask him to do.

I don't know about you, but I can ask for what seem like some pretty big things, but before we talk about that, let's back up a few verses. For better understanding, I'll switch to an easier-to-read version of the passage.

I pray that according to the wealth of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner person, Paul prays for the believers:To be strengthened and have powerTo have Christ dwelling in their hearts through faithTo comprehend the love of Christ that surpasses knowledgeTo be filled up with all the fullness of God
These requests are huge. Ridiculous, even when you look at just one of them. How could a human ever know something that surpasses knowledge? It's impossible. And yet, it's also my heart's cry. I hunger to understand God's love for me, because it's in his overwhelming, unconditional, and steadfast love that I have hope. 
Until we, as Christians, better understand the depth and breadth, the length and height of his love, we're at risk for underestimating it. Fear and guilt tell us his love is limited and shallow, and when we falter in our faith, we try to perform to earn or keep God's love. Instead of swimming in his love like we could, we flail, in danger of drowning in whirlpools of perfectionism and judgmental attitudes, at risk for being pulled under by the shark of hopelessness. 
So, my prayer echoes Paul's. Lord, I want to know your love. As impossible as it for a human to know the unknowable.
But then Paul follows his extravagant prayer with a stunning truth: God can do more than we ask or think. When we ask for the impossible, say to comprehend the incomprehensible love of God, we are touching only the very edge of what God is capable of doing. He can abundantly exceed those impossible requests.
And that brings me back to thinking I can ask God for some pretty big things. Do I? No. I ask for some pretty selfish things. For some pretty earth-minded things. I don't often ask for the impossible or the unimaginable. 
God cares about the details of our lives. We're instructed to pray about everything. So, yes, many of our prayers will be about earthly things. But let's not neglect praying for the things of greater importance, those related to our spiritual life and our relationship with the unlimited, uncontainable God.

Let us never hesitate to ask God to know him better, to experience him more fully, to understand his love on a deeper level. He wants these things for us. He died to give us that sort of relationship with him.
What prayers in the Bible do you like to meditate on and claim for yourself? What themes most cause you to stop and wonder?

Perfectionism's Antidote

As I checked, double-checked and, yup, triple-checked some professional emails I had to send earlier this week, I caught myself. I was letting perfectionism creep in. I needed to just send those emails and move on before I invested a lot more time and thought than the situation called for. Thankfully, this time around, recognizing what I was doing snapped me right out of it, so I clicked send and stopped obsessing.

But it's not always that easy. The emails, combined with some things I read this morning, reminded me that I sometimes tie immense importance to my performance of routine tasks. I must walk my dogs every day. I have to write spectacular blog posts that will resonate with my audience. I need to clean the house as well as possible for the Realtor's visit. I must give the perfect insightful edits to impress this client. I ought to be more thoughtful and sincere.

Must. Every. Have to. Spectacular. Need. As well as possible. Perfect. Impress. Ought. More.

This is the language of a perfectionist, and it's poison.


Though it didn't get the better of me with those emails, there are times when this poison seeps from the folds of my brain, enters my lifeblood, and clogs my heart until there's no room for rest and even less room for failure. When I stumble under its effects, I compare myself to others and declare myself lacking. Perfectionism taunts me to pull back if I don't feel I can surpass all expectations.

No matter how hard I try or how many successes I experience, perfectionism will heckle me if I let it, saying my efforts don't measure up and I don't deserve to achieve my dreams. It tells me I have too far to go and that I am a failure. It sings that other overachievers are naturals at what they do, and it's only me who has to work so hard.

These lies are all part of the poison. If you hear them pounding through your veins, don't buy a single one of them.

What's the source of this poison? Notice how many times "I" and "me" appear in those starting paragraphs?

Perfectionism is poison that comes in a bottle labelled, It's all up to me.

Praise God, there's an antidote. If you need it, just look for the bottle that says, It's all up to Jesus. When we focus on him and his perfect love, perfectionism drains from our systems.

Let's do that together, shall we? The next section is flooded with references to Bible verses. Especially if you've ingested some perfectionism poison lately, I hope you'll join me in taking the time to look these up and put the focus back where it belongs--on Jesus and the mighty Word of God.

Jesus died on the cross because not a single one of us is perfect (Romans 3:23). He loves us so deeply that he would suffer torture and death to restore a relationship with us, imperfect as we are (Romans 5:8). Once we enter that relationship with him, we're perfect in his sight, not because we earned it or deserve it or tried so very hard, but because of what he did (Colossians 1:22, Ephesians 2:8-9). He is the one who is faithful (Psalm 36:5). He is the one who guides our steps (Isaiah 58:11). He is powerful enough to transform our failures into glorious displays of his power (2 Corinthians 12:9-10).

Our failures don't stop him, and our successes could never top what he does in and through us.

In fact, he is our source of success.

He is able to do exceedingly, abundantly more than we could ever ask or think (Ephesians 3:20). That's his job. Not ours.


May each of us learn anew that as believers, we are accepted and loved (John 6:37, John 3:16, Ephesians 2:4, Romans 8:38-39). We are bought with a price he willingly paid (1 Corinthians 6:20, John 10:18). We are new (2 Corinthians 5:17). We are perfectly covered in his grace (Ephesians 1:7-8). We are his children, upon whom he lavishes all good things (1 John 3:1, Ephesians 1:7-8, Psalm 84:11, Romans 8:32). In him, we have hope and life and light and purpose and value (Romans 5:5, Psalm 36:9, Ephesians 2:10, 1 Corinthians 7:23). This is all a gift, not from anything we've done in the past or will do in the future (Ephesians 2:8-9).

Rest in that. Let it soak in and absorb the poison of perfectionism right out of your system.

That's a lot of verses, but it's not even close to all the truths the Bible offers to combat perfectionism. Do you have a go-to verse for when you begin to think it's all up to you or that you must work to be good enough?

6 Reasons to Travel

Though I don't always realize it immediately, travel is a big influence in my life. Here's just one example: In August, I helped my sister move from Wisconsin to Colorado. While with her there, I met some of the friends she had already living near the mountains and got to listen to their stories about hikes and about the area in general.

After I returned home, a writer friend encouraged me to enter a short story writing contest. The theme worked perfectly with the experience I had on my trip: mountains.

This last weekend, I took another trip out west, and on the drive, received an email informing me the mountain story had done well enough in the contest that it would be published in an anthology with the other winners. I'm excited to say the anthology will be coming out in just a couple of months! And I wouldn't have written the story I wrote if not for my trip.

This more recent trek across the country has me thinking about the benefits of travel. Here are a few I've come up with:
Lends a bigger base of experience. As a writer, this is vital. If I hadn't met someone who had hiked a fourteener (a mountain over 14,000 feet tall), it would've been harder to write about them, especially considering that I didn't know what a fourteener was before that trip. For writers and non-writers alike, experience gives us better stories to tell over dinner (I'm an introvert... I think about these things...) and makes us more well-rounded members of society. Travel forces this on us. We're no longer in our normal environment, so we have to make new choices about even the basics, like food.Strengthens relationships. If you travel to visit someone, you get to see how and where they live, so when they talk about their life, you can relate better. And if you travel with someone, you get to know them on a whole new level. Just be mindful of needing time apart to recharge, especially if there are introverts involved. Memories. They say it's not the things we remember but the experiences. It's the way your brother talks about usable art, jokes and shortens the sounds to call it yart, and then is thrilled when you pass a sign for a yart sale. (A sale meant to mimic a yard sale but for art.)  The t-shirt I bought there is nice, sure, but it's the story behind it that makes it really special. What are the odds his made up word would be on a sign like that?Reveals new possibilities. While out in Colorado, my husband started looking into whether or not there were good job possibilities out here. It's not that we're going to up and move, but why stay in one place simply because it never occurred to us to move? Displays God's handiwork in Creation. I recently read something that talked about how much God's love for us shines through in the beauty of the creation. In addition to His love, the grandeur of mountains, the peace of fields, and the shimmer of rivers also reflect some of His beauty and glory. Increases gratitude for home. Let's be real. Travel is exhausting. It's the driving and the time zones and the altitudes and the change in routine. And if you're traveling with others, tempers begin to wear thin eventually. So, it's good to return home and sleep in your own bed again and wake up in a place where you know which restaurants in the area do a good job with gluten-free and which will deliver your taco salad to your table in a deep fried flour shell after you told them you couldn't have flour.  Travel doesn't have to be extreme to achieve these benefits. I've done camping trips in my state that have had similar effects on me.

What is your favorite part of travel?