da qui, la traccia punta in tutti i sensi

// from here, the trail leads in all directions

"I want to live ever as to derive my satisfactions and inspirations from the commonest events, every‑day phenomena, so that what my senses hourly perceive, my daily walk, the conversation of my neighbours, may inspire me, and I may dream of no heaven but that which lies about me."
‑ Henry David Thoreau

A wise woman once told me that to wander is a good choice. My instincts agreed, so for the first time I set out on an adventure with no clear goal, not knowing what I hoped to learn.

When one wanders the world, one discovers not the world, but oneself. The act of peeling back the layers of the places I've seen and the people I've met has made me more calm, more tolerant, kinder and happier and more pliant. I worry less and I contemplate rather than think. I am more brave, less wary but more aware, harder to irritate, less materialistic (but I still like stuff), more of a dreamer but better tethered to the foundation of reality. I have far less direction but am far more certain of the path I am treading.

In my time away I've missed four things; the silent majesty of my land, the nurturing fellowship of my people, and the deep myriad colours of a life lived among them. Also, my washing machine.

Over the coming years I know that I will leave these things behind time and again, to travel further and further into the many worlds that make up Earth. I want to see the Amazon, Russia and especially Siberia, maybe India, Bolivia, Peru, return to see more of Morocco. I'll wander through China and Japan and tiny countries whose name nobody knows. I'll meet strange people and speak in strange tongues and try strange fruit. I'll unearth more and more of the world's ancient mysteries to compare their different hues, never forgetting that they are all made of the same dust. I will gradually perfect the art of travelling, but I will always come back.

Travel is an incredible thing; it answers questions buried so deeply within you that you never thought to ask them. Since I was young, I have looked to the horizon wondering where life's greatest adventures lie. After wandering the earth for all this time I finally have the answer;

life's greatest adventures are found at home.