Back on the map

But where exactly?

A few months ago during a conversation about ambition and happiness, a friend mentioned that she feared “falling off the map.”  In other words, she feared disappearing off into some corner of the world and becoming irrelevant, however quietly happy that little corner might be.  It’s the “if a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it…” conundrum for the internet age.

In the past few weeks, I have most definitely been off the map, and I couldn’t be more grateful for it.

After two months of self-expansion and (sometimes draining) reflection in Russia, I was ready for a break from writing, logging in, and photographing.  I put the internet to sleep and checked out for a while, and I feel all the more sane for doing so.

So now I find myself once again in the Western hemisphere, in a familiar place full of love and magic, beside someone from whom I could no longer bear to be apart.  Can anyone guess where that might be?

I’m beginning a new leg of my journey, one that was unexpected and unplanned, in a place that feels like home and with a belly full of butterflies and arequipe.  So much uncertainty would have sent me into paralysis a year ago; now it fills me with endless ideas and the courage to pursue them.  Let’s hope that, as Pico Iyer said, “the best trips, like the best love affairs, never really end.”

As nice as it is to be back on the radar, I’ll be stepping off once again for four days of beach-camping bliss at Parque Tayrona.  Expect a lot of photos of hammocks, palm trees, and piña coladas coming your way soon!