People these days tell me: “You like travelling.” after learning about the places I’ve been to and the things I’ve done there. But the truth is… I don’t.
Not in its conventional sense anyway. I don’t like hopping from one place to another, packing my backpack in and out every 2-3 days. I don’t like the stress of changing planes, trains and buses in figuring out what and where and how to get to the place I want to get (plus environmental impact of flying is horrendous).
I love building a daily routine at a new location. I love being able to hike up a mountain and take in a new scenery as a break from staring at my laptop instead of my usual urban surroundings of Amsterdam, which is where technically my home is.
In this episode I share my worldview on how to make the entire world feel like your home.
…I love breathing in new cultures, while gradually finding a “local” shop or a cafe, developing relationships with the neighbours and communities I’m living in, learning about and – from them. In India, I stayed for a month in one Keralan town, and in Guatemala I lived for 5 weeks in a small village by the Lake Atitlan. It seems the more of the world I see, the longer I need my settlements to be.
As I reach out long and far, through this gradual absorption of the surroundings, I make myself feel at home there. In that gesture, the world gradually feels smaller and smaller – and more reachable.
In this episode, I talk about how I move through the world and really absorb it. I hope to inspire you to consider a slower way of experiencing our planet – with the sense of awe, curiosity and wonder.
In that way you grow to feel the connection with the big wide world. You start to realise that national borders are one of the most artificial tools ever invented. Without sounding like I’m about to sing “Kumbaya” – that it is one world, one home – to all of us.
English
Leave a Reply