Holding Gratitude While Traveling (& During Life in general)

When I am walking along the streets of a new city I have never seen, I instantly get filled with a traveler’s high—it’s like a stimulant and a love drug mixed well into the batter of life: everything is brighter, warmer, simply more majestic. I could go on and on about the joy and ecstasy you can receive while traveling.

But sometimes, there are days, I will be sitting under a striking oak tree (or maybe a palm tree, or an agave tree), and the light, like millions of tiny secret agents on a mission to brighten my day, stream through the silhouettes of the great branches and bright green leaves above. The sunshine tickles my skin cells, and they all shriek of warm joy, the type of joy that reminds you of that one time your mother hugged you and told you she loved you.

Sometimes, I get lucky, and I am reminded how lucky I am to be alive, listening to the birds happily chirping their sweet melodies to their kin, and lovers, and even to us. We just happened to find this earth that just happened to be exactly in the right place, like goldilocks found her perfect bowl of soup, we found this earth: not too hot, not too cold, just right. This earth just happened to cool down and provide water for our crops, our bodies, our lives, our existence. Our existence is all based on happenchance. My parents happened to decide to move to America, where I happened to decide I love English, which allowed me to forge a path of traveling and teaching.

Sometimes, the simple sun’s shining rays and birds’ sweet chirps and a quick sip of cool and crisp water is enough to put a smile on my face. Enough to make me feel that life is worth living. Enough to bring me to a silence and feel the peace that comes from within. A stillness.

Sometimes, I am filled to the brim, and then overflowing, and then reaching to fill others with gratitude. And on days like this, I ride it out as long as I can. I am happy.