4 Valuable Life Lessons I Picked Up In My World Travels

For many of us, it is a dream to travel the world. This is especially true throughout the past year, as we’ve been confined to our own neighborhoods during the time of COVID-19 pandemic.

I have been fortunate to be able to visit various places like Africa, India, Bhutan and Venice and am now reflecting upon the lessons those travels have taught me. 

To dedicate yourself to discovering your own answers to some of life’s questions for yourself is a wonderful gift. I have been fortunate enough to have had an incredible opportunity in this, having lived abroad at a very young age, but it was not until my travels as an adult that I was truly able to understand how rich the world is outside the United States where I now live.

As a child, I was always eager to learn things and as an adult, I am always looking for answers to my questions. I’ve always loved to read, and all the reading and studying I did in school became fuel for me to think about traveling and going to different places, which I was able to do, later in life. The lessons I learned on my travels have taught me about myself, others and how we all relate to each other in ways that we cannot always see.

These are just a few of the wonderful connections, experiences and life lessons I've had during my travels in these four incredible places:

1. Connecting with Culture, and Nature in East Africa

When I got to Africa, I recognized that our customs and traditions were different, but that did not separate us from each other as people. In Africa, there was a feeling of being one with my fellow human beings and nature, despite our differences. Africa was one of the most transformative places I've been.

During my first visit, I had this great sense of privilege in being there. It felt like it was a gift given to me to be able to be out in the wild, with people teaching me about the land, and the animals who lived there. One of the revelations I had was how small human beings are, in the vast landscape of the world. When you look out at the East African landscape you see a vastness with trees, grasses and all these beautiful aspects of nature, with the great variety of wild animals. This is their kingdom, their place, and as a person, you're just a visitor. 

Africa taught me to see that we should not be trying to dominate nature, the animals or to control the landscape. Rather, we humans should be living in harmony with it. It is very refreshing, as a human being, to be alleviated of this responsibility that you're the most important thing in the universe. We have to let go of this feeling of you are everything. Because the truth is that we are part of what everything is, but we are not it all ourselves. And in Africa I was able to have a deeper understanding of that truth.

2. A Fortunate Friendship in Bhutan

When I was in Bhutan, I formed a wonderful alliance with a man who called himself “Karma”. He was my guide for 10 days. He told me that he had once tried to enter the monastic life but he admitted with a smile that he didn't have the discipline to do so. Instead, he became a travel guide and that way, he got to meet a lot of people, and I knew right away that I was lucky enough to be one of those people. We didn't do any trekking, like many people do in Bhutan, but we did a lot of road trips to monasteries and different villages. He talked to me about the traditions of the Bhutanese and about their way of living. I had an extra camera during my trip so I gave it to him and we both took photographs together. I was fortunate to be invited by him to see a private family cremation. It was an astonishing experience for me, and probably one of the most striking and dramatic events that I witnessed, in any of my travels. I got to be a participant in a quiet way, and watch the family who are witnessing the burning of their matriarch. That was an astonishing experience and it wouldn't have happened had he and I not hit it off so well and developed trust, and friendship. I would never have seen that type of sacred ceremony had it not been for the man who called himself Karma, and was my guide for those 10 days.

3. Remarkable Discoveries in Venice

Marvelous discoveries can sometimes come out of getting lost. I had an extraordinary encounter in Venice, Italy, with a young man named Johnny Bosco. Johnny had a little print shop that I discovered by happenstance.The whole place smelled of ink and books and there was beautiful paper everywhere. You could tell by the notes that were stuck on his wall that people from all over the world had found him and left a memory within his shop. I learned that Johnny did everything manually - there was nothing technological in his print shop. In talking with Johnny, I then learned that he had apprenticed with some monks, who taught him some of the secret techniques of the printing endeavor. I love the idea of how we learn things by just working alongside other people, and that Johnny was sticking to the traditional teachings that have been passed down for generations. Every time I go back to Venice, I seek him out. I had him print some business cards for me and every time I look at one of the cards that he's made for me, I flashback to that tiny little print shop filled with these beautiful things and people from all over the world. What I love about this is that Johnny’s print shop would never have shown up in a guide book. You would just have to discover him, by getting lost in Venice.

4. Generosity of Spirit and Humanity in India

When I went to India, I discovered humanity and was astonished by the depth of it, expressed by the people of India. Despite the dire poverty and deprivation there, I felt the generosity of spirit, the warmth and the kind of sense of being invited in. I learned that you can be generous even when you are poor as dirt, or when you don't have anything. There is a level of spiritual understanding in India, I believe, or a sense of embracing all of humanity, that means there's no relationship to your economic well being. This was so clearly demonstrated by the culture and their way of life, and that was very moving for me to see that and to learn that lesson in that way. 

These are just some of the ways travel has impacted my life in meaningful ways. I am grateful for the opportunities that I've had to travel the world, especially now that we are so confined to our own neighborhoods, during the COVID-19 pandemic.  

Which places have you traveled to and what are the significant lessons you’ve learned from your travels there? Leave a comment, I’d love to hear from you!

P.S. Photo by Ibrahim Rifath on Unsplash