Travelling is not always the physical moving

I made my first entry on blogger on the 23rd of July 2006 - that is almost exactly 13 years ago, and 198 entries later I am still here and still travelling. There have been long gaps in my entries, particularly over the past four years as I struggled with what life threw at me. I look back at the first entry - an attempt to share with my community in a life where it seems almost impossible to send personal emails to everyone I know - it was an exciting time for me July 2006. I had been living in Dhaka in Bangladesh for almost a year and had met people who would become like family to me as we traversed an exciting yet sometimes difficult experience. My first entry was just a setting up of this blog, and the second was writing from Dublin as I prepared to return for my second year. As I sit in Heathrow airport now at the beginning of an exciting month of traipsing around Europe I return to the excitement I felt in starting this blog and reflect on what my purpose was. I think I realize now what I did not then that my journeys are ultimately one long life journey, and those of you reading over the past nine months will share this sentiment I have expressed in a very raw and personal manner. Physical movement is certainly part of the journey, but ultimately for me it has been about personal growth. In the next four weeks I am excited to spend time with friends and family in Ireland, the UK, Sweden, Norway and Spain before returning home to Vancouver. I am incredibly excited to be with so many people I love in a time when life just seems so alive, so exciting and so precious. I will take you on the physical journey with me (and feature some of the blog's original participants) but please excuse the metaphysical journey that accompanies the 'real' movement.