It is a great big world out there...

It has been said that a “Journey of a thousand miles begins with one step”. While this is true I believe a journey of a thousand miles begins with one brief thought, the thought that you could do something different that you could achieve something many dream of. The world is full of dreamers but it is the ones that capture that brief thought, the ones that pursue it as if it was the prophesy stone… as if it was priceless because no price can be put on life, love and adventure. These thoughts come and go; they cause us to ache in longing and wonder. For a brief moment they make you think if you could only catch hold and do or be, you would find an overflowing moonscape of life as deep and endless as the sky and universe are big. But then as quickly as they come they are dismissed, the thought is gone and the first foot step is never even considered. I recently embarked on an adventure, like all adventures I could have never guessed the outcome or foreseen the absolute poetry that the world will take you through if you give it the chance. My journey took me through 12 countries and covered thousands of miles. I left home with a backpack containing only one change of clothes and a sleeping bag. I set out in Bulgaria with my brother without an agenda, only knowing I needed to be in Ireland in a month. During the course of the trip I saw beauty and wonder only to be contrasted by hatred and even murder. I saw countries where freedom was still a new and unfamiliar taste in people’s mouths; I saw a new life of possibility coming alive in their very eyes. I also saw the life go out in the eyes of a man that was shot in a pointless hate crime in front of my very eyes. I found a world so large and unapologetic, so deep I could never grasp. Yet at the same time I saw that in the heart and mind of a single person one can find beauty and wonder surpassing anything I have seen in the natural world. To travel the world over and not go to equal lengths to meet and know the people would be a grave mistake. Even more so… to live this life that I have been given only for myself; to consent to exist in that world… and ignore all the wonder, beauty and terror that is humanity surrounding me. Why, that would be an even greater mistake. No, I must not place far too small a limit on my world. I must choose to leave myself open to the whispers and groaning from all of humanity. Knowing full well I can never be everything I want to be, but alas I can be more than I am. Months later I write this and the very thoughts make me feel more alive. I remember sleeping in parks and hiking through towns in Croatia on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. I will always cherish the memories but more importantly, I war against the human condition of apathy to remember what the world so generously taught… The journey of a thousand miles starts with one brief thought… Don’t miss it.