You know that feeling when a trip comes to an end—half joy, half ache? That quiet pause when the adventure is over, and you’re about to leave behind the places and people that touched you? That’s what I call melancholy travel. I love travel. Really, I do. The new sights, the […]
Travel can be tiring—really tiring. The packing. The journey to the airport and train stations. The shuffle through security. Boarding. Upright seatbacks. Cramped legroom. The long line for the (ugh) lavatory. Then you finally arrive—unpack, eat, try to sleep (not enough), get up, see this and that… and repeat. What I […]
When Travel Teaches You More Than You Expected Travel has a funny way of teaching lessons you never planned to learn. Sometimes it happens through a breathtaking view or a quiet museum. Other times, it’s through a single sentence from someone you’ve just met. That’s what happened to my wife […]
Lessons from a Journey Through Four Countries and One Kingdom It’s been an interesting season of travel. Though I’ve journeyed a bit over my six-plus decades, most of it has been within the United States. Europe, until now, had remained unexplored territory. Well, as the saying goes, there’s a first […]
“I’m kinda busy.”“I can’t right now.”“I’m sorry, but…” I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve heard—or said—some version of these words. Life has a way of getting in the way of life, doesn’t it? And before the standard defenses are offered, let me be clear: I truly understand that […]
I tend to live in a Post-it Notes kind of world. You know—the small, sticky pieces of paper perfect for jotting down ideas or reminders and sticking them wherever they’ll be noticed: refrigerator doors, desktops, dashboards. These days, though, I mostly use the digital version—an app fittingly called Notes in the Apple […]
Once again, life has taught me something about life—this time, somewhere around 35,000 feet. Anyone who’s traveled with kids knows the challenge. Their frontal lobes—those critical centers for reasoning and impulse control—are still under construction. So we hear the familiar refrains: “Are we there yet?”“I’m tired.”“Why can’t I have that?”And […]
Some moments in life are so perfectly absurd, they feel like fiction—except they’re not. You really can’t make this stuff up. My trip home from a far-too-short visit with family included a routine cross-country flight. Nothing extraordinary there. Like clockwork, the flight attendants began their standard pre-flight safety spiel: seatbelt […]
I don’t always know why my mind drifts the way it does. It just does. Sometimes without warning, without direction—like leaves caught in the wind. And here I am again, sitting in an airport waiting area, my body grounded but my thoughts still sailing somewhere behind me. Five days. That’s […]
Luck. Most of us have a working definition—some blend of randomness, chance, and timing. For many, it explains the great disparities in life. Why did she get the opportunity? Why did he end up with that burden? On the flip side, others see life soley through the lens of personal responsibility. Success or struggle is […]
acts17seventeen 