While I do write travel guides on this blog, most articles I write are stories. This is in part because I think that once you have the basic travel skills, over-planning can prevent you from being open to everything the trip can give you. And I say this, as a former over-planner – I’m really, really good at planning.
The thing is, the most valuable life experiences you get from travel, lie in the space of uncertainty. It is the making of new relationships with new people and new places. And just like any relationship, you need to vacate space for the world to connect to you. Yet having everything planned out removes all the contact points. There are no miracles when you are not open.
So I write the travel stories that show how different a trip is when you have this mindset. When you bring yourself instead of your plan, every trip – no matter where you go – becomes unique, and in the mirror of these different places you see the hidden parts of yourself that increase your awareness of who you are.
I hope it inspires you to let go of obsessions about where to go and how many things you can do, and learn instead the wisdom of where and how to be, so you can meet the right people, and for the right things to happen – for you.
