Why We Travel

We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.

T.S. Elliot

To travel is to explore. It forces you out of your familiar surroundings and patterns and takes you into the unknown. 

In a new place, your senses are sharpened. You pay attention, listening and looking with a keener ear and eye. You see-really see what is in front of you. After all, it is a new place to be explored.

Often what you see traveling can move and inspire you. At times there is a sense of awe at the sheer beauty of it all. You are reminded of what a gift it is to be alive and able to travel.

To stand on the shore of the Celtic Sea and to sail the North Sea-to behold the majesty of Palaces, Cathedrals, and Castles. From the deep-down freshness of green Ireland to the waves crashing on the coast of Wales, Scotland, and France—all of it is beyond my ability to put into words. 

The morning after we got back home, I sat on the back porch with a cup of coffee like I have done hundreds of times before. As I sat there I noticed how green and beautiful everything looked. I listened to the birds sing their songs from my neighbor’s trees. I witnessed all of this under the bluest sky. “It is beautiful,” I said to myself.

That is why we travel-to explore and learn. Ultimately it is to come home and see it again for the first time.