It seems like just yesterday it was summer. How did November come so quickly? Today, as I walk through stores surrounded by holiday displays, I can’t help but take a moment to reflect during this season of gratitude. As I think about the things I’m thankful for, naturally my mind turns to my family, friends, and good health. After all, truly they are most important in my life. As I dig deeper, I ponder what most enhances my life and without a doubt, the answer is travel.
I travel a lot to build my knowledge and experience, which helps me with my business side of travel, but when I travel with my family, that’s something different. When I travel with my family, those are the times I cherish most. Those are the times we disconnect from our every day routine, and we reconnect with each other. With two entrepreneurial parents, and three boys who are now all young adults, times are rare when we are all in the same place for more than a few hours, watching the same sunsets, enjoying the same undistracted meals, or becoming familiar with a new culture or new city. When we travel together, times like these are the foundation for memories that will last a lifetime.
The experiences we share, are those we seem to talk about years later. “Remember when we were in St. Petersburg and decided to take the hydrofoil over to the Hermitage.”………. ‘remember our guide Richard, in Copenhagen, who taught us about toasting with ‘skoal’”……. remember that card game we played on the train, and everyone was wondering why we were laughing so much?…... remember the sound of the whales and how the sound escalated until they were just about to emerge from the sea?”…… remember our waiter Jorge, who brought your favorite dessert each night?”…. and the list goes on and on and on.
Through travel we build our shared experiences, our knowledge, and our memories. We fill our image banks with scenes of beautiful sunrises, dramatic sunsets, mountains and glaciers, city landscapes and more. Our senses are heightened by new foods, unfamiliar languages, unique and distinct architecture. We venture out to countries or cities we’ve read and dreamed about and we find people who are eager to welcome us to their city, and show us how their past history has propelled their current times.
After a vacation full of lasting discoveries, we go home and find ourselves even more grateful for the home we return to. Our house, our dogs, our beds, our showers, our routines, and we realize even more that we have an abundance to be thankful for.
Life is good. I will always be grateful for travel.
