Travel is death and rebirth. I opened the door and walked outside - the sky is blue and the trees are green, just as they always have been. Myriad suns have come up and gone down, but for me there is only one, rising and falling, just as breath causes my chest to rise and fall.
What began in Hungary all those months ago is drawing to a close. For the past 9 months, I’ve been trekking across the world, living the life I’ve always dreamed and tasting cultures rich and strange. In the first few weeks of our trip, it began to sink in... this was not a short term holiday, a sneaky 2 weeks of respite received for slavery to the corporate ideal. This was the genuine article.
We left London full of excitement, the promise of an amazing journey mapping out before us. Since landing in Hungary, we’ve travelled through 15 countries, learnt strange languages, and ridden camels, motorbikes, cars, buses, trains, planes and boats. We’ve tasted freezing snows and monsoon rains, and roasted in boiling desert sands.
But the physical locations are merely a part of my journey – I’ve been searching for something deeper, a deeper sense of meaning in my life. In fairy tales, they call this ‘seeking your fortune’. So while travelling around rich and strange countries, I’ve been deliberating: What is in stall for me? What do I want to do with my life? I guess you’d call it a near life experience, and I realised I don’t want to waste time doing things I don’t like - one of my “new” personal goals is to squeeze every last drop out of this life. When I'm behind a computer in an office, I don't feel alive or free, and I'm constantly looking for that precious "thing" - that thing that pushes me to the edge and makes me feel alive and free. There's no one thing that takes me there - I've found 'pieces of gold' in different physical, emotional and mental landscapes around the world. But the thing which most consistently wakes me up is travel.
Altering surroundings, languages and cultures demands my presence, immediately and absolutely. Even the mundane becomes interesting, and the most intense feeling of aliveness results. I catch myself, in an altered moment, awakened, stimulated - just ALIVE. A wise man once said: 'When you feel most alive, find out why, This is one guest you won't greet twice'.
Travel pushes me to consider what's important, what I REALLY want abstracted from the mirage of daily necessity. With a change of culture, society, social norms and the usual parameters of work-eat-sleep, I'm challenged to find meaning without my usual routines, surroundings and demands. In the absence of daily routine, I see what's important to me. Travel inspires me to live.
So what have I learnt? Although the big bright yellow sun beating down appears to be the same as yesterday, it has changed irrevocably as have I. I am older today than I was yesterday, and like all life, I am aware that I will die one day. During my travels, I have attempted to deliberate on this fact - not a morbid contemplation but a practical comparative contemplation. When I view values, thoughts or a particular course of action through the lens of my death, the ultimate umpire, I get a precise sense of value, and understand with clarity what is important and what is not. I ask a question that will define my life, for better or worse: When I inevitably get to the end, what will allow me to look back with satisfaction rather than regret, happiness and fulfilment rather than disappointment?
Tonight, the game shifts for once more time, and we board the big bird bound once more for the land of my birth. It’s been almost three years since the departure, and ‘home’ may have changed though not nearly as much as I have. Old friends and new challenges await, and I’m looking forward to plugging in the new me and answering the questions I posed above with actions. Some big changes are on the horizon...
What began in Hungary all those months ago is drawing to a close. For the past 9 months, I’ve been trekking across the world, living the life I’ve always dreamed and tasting cultures rich and strange. In the first few weeks of our trip, it began to sink in... this was not a short term holiday, a sneaky 2 weeks of respite received for slavery to the corporate ideal. This was the genuine article.
We left London full of excitement, the promise of an amazing journey mapping out before us. Since landing in Hungary, we’ve travelled through 15 countries, learnt strange languages, and ridden camels, motorbikes, cars, buses, trains, planes and boats. We’ve tasted freezing snows and monsoon rains, and roasted in boiling desert sands.
But the physical locations are merely a part of my journey – I’ve been searching for something deeper, a deeper sense of meaning in my life. In fairy tales, they call this ‘seeking your fortune’. So while travelling around rich and strange countries, I’ve been deliberating: What is in stall for me? What do I want to do with my life? I guess you’d call it a near life experience, and I realised I don’t want to waste time doing things I don’t like - one of my “new” personal goals is to squeeze every last drop out of this life. When I'm behind a computer in an office, I don't feel alive or free, and I'm constantly looking for that precious "thing" - that thing that pushes me to the edge and makes me feel alive and free. There's no one thing that takes me there - I've found 'pieces of gold' in different physical, emotional and mental landscapes around the world. But the thing which most consistently wakes me up is travel.
Altering surroundings, languages and cultures demands my presence, immediately and absolutely. Even the mundane becomes interesting, and the most intense feeling of aliveness results. I catch myself, in an altered moment, awakened, stimulated - just ALIVE. A wise man once said: 'When you feel most alive, find out why, This is one guest you won't greet twice'.
Travel pushes me to consider what's important, what I REALLY want abstracted from the mirage of daily necessity. With a change of culture, society, social norms and the usual parameters of work-eat-sleep, I'm challenged to find meaning without my usual routines, surroundings and demands. In the absence of daily routine, I see what's important to me. Travel inspires me to live.
So what have I learnt? Although the big bright yellow sun beating down appears to be the same as yesterday, it has changed irrevocably as have I. I am older today than I was yesterday, and like all life, I am aware that I will die one day. During my travels, I have attempted to deliberate on this fact - not a morbid contemplation but a practical comparative contemplation. When I view values, thoughts or a particular course of action through the lens of my death, the ultimate umpire, I get a precise sense of value, and understand with clarity what is important and what is not. I ask a question that will define my life, for better or worse: When I inevitably get to the end, what will allow me to look back with satisfaction rather than regret, happiness and fulfilment rather than disappointment?
Tonight, the game shifts for once more time, and we board the big bird bound once more for the land of my birth. It’s been almost three years since the departure, and ‘home’ may have changed though not nearly as much as I have. Old friends and new challenges await, and I’m looking forward to plugging in the new me and answering the questions I posed above with actions. Some big changes are on the horizon...
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