Why travel?

I recently read a post on Traveling.

The person writing it was much younger than me, and their outlook on life was very different because of it.  traveling gave him/her a different perspective and linked him/her into the traveling community.  Going back to mainstream after one year of travel would be as major a change for a lot of people as one year of military service or another life changing event.

As an older person, traveling did not affect me as deeply.  More, core values have not changed, and the way I look at others is still the same, albeit from a slightly different angle.  If anything traveling re-affirmed that underneath all the differences of language, culture and clothing, all of us in the Americas are far more alike than we are different.

Being poor sucks.  Being wanted lifts you up.  Needing ask for help when you are used to fending for yourself is a mix of humiliating, humbling, frustrating and depressing things.  Helping a friend when they are stuck down a hole is beyond rewarding, it is life affirming.  Helping a stranger, even with something trivial connects and lifts all.  Being needlessly mean sucks the life out of you and those around you.

All of that and more is brought home into your heart when you travel, and whether you assimilate this on the road or after does not matter.

Whether you travel across the globe or across the street does not matter.

It is the mind set you travel with, and the new angle of looking at the same places and people when you return that matters.

If you fail to see others living, and how they can be happy while having very little and empty inside while having plenty, you have failed in Traveling and just might be failing at Life.

I gave up a lot of material things to travel, and would do it again in a heartbeat.

What I am is not what I own or what I can buy.

It is who I connect with and who I love that define me more than anything else.

The hardest part of Traveling is letting go of connections, never knowing if they will be re-newed, and always being willing to make new ones, knowing how fragile they can be.