I.

"You can't come home until you leave home."

An interesting concept in today's world; where I've spent not 4 days straight without at least some access to the internet. The world is now so small- you can fly, ignoring layovers, around the entire world that contains every human being in the universe in under 72 hours. Three days out of my 80 year lifespan and I can be anywhere a human being can ever live.

It makes me wonder: have I left home?
I check my e-mail regularly, update my blog, glance at facebook, keep in contact with friends... sometimes, I feel like I've hardly stepped out of the door.
Though as I stare out into the streets of Jaipur, Bangkok, Agra and Alwar, It seems like I am on a different planet. The sounds, the language, the signs, the customs, the smells, the food, the cars, the very life itself is so different. So different from my home, under 20 hours away. From my front lawn, my three pet dogs, my clean street and toilet paper.

This separation is so horribly confusing! on one hand I want to go back to the comforts of my life, as I know it's so close, so easily obtainable- and I find myself reaching for western foods, western mannerisms and language. Though on the other hand I am so terribly intrigued by the absolute strangeness I've encountered not even a day's travel from my front door I feel compelled to keep going! to travel! to see what lies a full 48 hours away from home! what could it be? India and Thailand have surpassed my (not yet wildest) dreams. What could possibly lay in store for me as I continue? Will it be something I cannot even imagine? Will I encounter a 'bizzaro' world, so similar, but skewed just enough? Will the languages be similar? Will the food be strange?

all off these questions and hundreds more push and push me forward, driving me onward into the unknown. Towards Africa, Norway, urging me to go farther- to those corners of the world not accessible, where the human face is a startling visage! To hear the song of the shifting floes! To feel the wind through the boughs of an unclimbed tree! "Go" they say, "discover the hidden", they whisper. I am powerless to refuse!

How do you turn from the siren song of the whales, or the promise in the wind on the leaves? How do you resist the taste of a foreign syllable on your tongue?! maybe others do not hear it as I do. Maybe others are stronger than I. But my curiosity is too much, I live to learn...to discover. Out! to the most gnarled, moss-ridden, magnificent tree; to the welcome mat on my very doorstep, I am propelled.

And I am never far from home.