Travel can be as much about moving away from, as moving towards. I see travel from two perspectives. There is the time-out travel by which we take a hiatus from our everyday routines, to sightsee, relax and rejuvenate to then return to our lives and continue on, all the better for the break we have had. This would be the temporary moving away from, to then return.

But there is another kind of travel. A travel that is about moving away from, and moving towards something else. We use the outer and inner experience of travel as a segue to a new self, a new perspective, a new life direction. We do not return the same, or to the same.

We set our intention, chart a course, and then allow the experience to unfold in and around us.

For me this is transformational travel. I not only want to see the world, I want to experience the world in which I live, allowing a new outer experience to inform an inner experience and visa versa.  I want to travel through to new awareness. Letting the destination be change itself.

I am a seeker at heart, looking to travel to deepen my experience of life, to explore the human experience from cultural, geographical perspectives, and to delve into the understanding of myself and my relationship to the world around me. To learn about wildlife and their natural habitats, as I feel a connection with them, showing me that I am not living as wild as I could be.

I knew I had to change my life. I was not content to live the same day, the same way, over and over again.

With this in mind, as I stood at the edge of my known reality, I decided to jump off the edge of my comfort zone head first into a world of exploration and discovery. I quit my job, sold my home, and all of my furniture and packed my life into nine totes.

As I am writing this, I am wondering if I am giving you the impression that any of this was easy. I share with you, it was not. The resistance, the fear, the letting go, the unravelling of perceptions, perspectives, programming have all been an integral part of preparing my inner landscape to navigate the challenging wilderness of the outer landscape.

So, with my life fully packed in my SUV, I sat quietly for a moment behind the wheel, closed my eyes and took a deep breath, inhaling the familiar for the last time, and exhaling into the vastness of possibility. Letting go of my known day and my known self, I started the engine and began my drive west across Canada.