What a beautiful post, Amanda. Your comment Everyone, everywhere, is the same, really struck me because I spent a year in China (I know you said you've not been and it's probably changed a lot since I was there in the 95/96) which is a very different culture from the one I knew/know. When I came home I was asked what I'd learned and I said: Everyone, everywhere is the same. I also learned that I was a homebody - saying that, your nomadic life sounds hard work but amazing. xx
What were you doing there for a year, Sharon? I’d have loved to go there back then before online times. That everyone everywhere is the same is the biggest thing I’ve learned in all this travel. Which has been amazing but, yes, also hard work at times! 💙
teaching English as a foreign language. Fabulous experience, wonderful people. That's right, before online. I met someone (just twice) before I went. We wrote to one another for eleven months, he visited for my last three weeks, and now we've been married for 27 years!
I love your autobiographical pieces—this one has the added pull for me of being anthropological (why are we the way we are?). I knew we resonated by having the Lao Tzu and the Tao in common, then you went and excerpted one of my own favorite quotes from Echhart Tolle.
I’ve not travelled much—certainly not as often as you. I should explore THAT myself by writing on it. Maybe it’s because my upbringing was seemingly much more stable, and therefore the wanderlust pull never materialized. Maybe I never had the example in my life of how beneficial travel would be—especially for someone like me who loves to study other peoples. Maybe poverty and money worries got in the way. Regardless, one of the joys of learning is that it can be done vicariously through the lives of others. And when one finds someone with similar interests, and who is such a gifted writer, then, like Tolle alludes, they were meant to be in our lives then too—as our guides on further journeys we’ll never make, except through their words.
Thanks Kert. I’m happy to hear that you enjoy them as I like writing them. And yet another shared interest emerges! I do think there is some connection between my wanderlust and the instability of my young life. My husband is prone to wander too (obviously!) and his childhood was chaotic also. So yes, maybe not having such upheaval made you more of a homebody.
Hi Amanda, I have just read about your fascinating life! With such a shaky start, is it any wonder that you were , later, keen on wandering?! In my opinion, travelling, enriching your life and meeting different people, is so valuable to a writer. I had a disrupted life in that World War 11 intruded, and I was evacuated three times to different places (quite an education...) Earlier, I couldn 't have wished for better, more stable and loving parents, so am hugely grateful to them. I later wrote a Memoir, taking in the war and my experiences.) Fast forward, I was very lucky to meet a charismatic, loving man who had 'itchy feet,' and after marriage found myself living in Canada...(time of the Suez
Crisis) , and we lived and worked in Toronto for 18, fascinating months. Homesick, we returned to the UK and I then had three, worthy sons. Motherhood and Business followed, but in between, we travelled a fair amount to several countries, which I loved. We also moved many times...As I say - home is where your heart is! We lived in Romford, Essex for several years but retired to Spain 24 years ago and have now been married 71. happy years. With a great love of words and writing, I have had nine books published and the 10th awaits a publisher (?) It was nice 'talking' to you. All the very best for the future. Cheers!
I've lived in the same home for 23 years, not traveling much due to job and pet constraints. I love the land we have with its walking paths and garden and old vegetable cannery. I would love to see more of the US and the world. One of my dreams is to travel the US in an RV, just going from town to town to meet other where they live. To explore the wonders of nature. I've always lived with the feeling that home is truly where my heart is, though I have a distinct longing for the land my family left when I was 13. Thank you for sharing your experiences. I love to read about how others make their way in this world.
Oh gosh, do I love this post -- not only learning more about you, Amanda, but also resonating with and sharing your urge to be what I call a "citizen of the world" (even though I can't come close to your list of places visited and lived in). I'm so glad your globetrotting has provided a sort of healing for the younger you who dreamed of escape. And I LOVE that you and your husband have found ways to craft your lifestyle around that, so you could keep on travelling. This was a joy to read!
You hit the nail on the head with your last line I think. You can travel around, but it's about the stillness inside yourself. As long as you've got that, you're golden. The world needs travellers and explorers and adventurers, else we'd be pretty stagnant.
That was beautiful, Amanda. Though my travel history isn't as far and wide as yours, my husband and I bounced around until we came to the same conclusion: Everyone, everywhere is the same. And any "where" is just as good as any other "where" when you're pursuing a life you can live instead of just plod through. I loved this so much. 💙
Thanks Loretta. I’m glad you liked it. We’ll stop moving one day when we feel like the somewhere is the right place for us to live. Maybe we already found it in Greece…💙
I have long been a nomadic soul here in the U.S., having lived and visited 46 of the 50 states. Just this year I intentionally decided to permanently settle in one place which is Fort Collins, Colorado. Life has been quite the dance.
Born and grew up in Wales. Studied and stayed several years in England. Now settled in France for more than 25 years. Numerous holidays in various countries. I believe it opens your mind to experience different cultures, languages and landscapes. Something we seem to have passed on to our children, one of whom has been living and working in the southern hemisphere for 5 years and constantly changes location ever since leaving home 13 years ago.
I agree, Jane. It definitely opens your mind. Where in France are you? We’re considering moving there once my Irish passport comes through. A friend of ours bought a house there recently and we’re going to go and visit him next year and check out the area.
I’m hoping to go live somewhere with much nicer weather than Wales! I’ve spent lots of time in north Devon over the past 12 years and can see south Wales from here. Our weather and theirs is very similar. Wet and windy most of the time!
"And even though I’ve never been still for long in the physical world, the journey I’ve been on has led me to a great stillness in my inner world that goes with me everywhere, all of the time." Yes! While I haven't traveled much internationally (I'd love to do that!), I have traveled and moved all over the U.S. and Canada. I ask myself the same questions over and over, "why do I do this? why can't I just stop? why can't I find a place I don't eventually feel the need to leave?" As we look at moving yet again next year, I've just decided that this is me. I move. Maybe someday, I'll stop. This attitude helps me not to spend as much time and energy on the questions (and also, not make myself feel guilty for not staying put like I "should."). Thank you Amanda!
Yes I’ve had to just accept that I move too! We can’t make ourselves not do it as then we’d be going against our nature, I believe. I’m sure one day both of us will find ourselves in a place and realise we haven’t left and don’t want to. Maybe!
Very genuine, Amanda! I have traveled and been a bit nomadic, too. It has been a challenge for a "career" and great for a vocation- I learn a lot by traveling, and some of that experience forms/ supports my art and writing. I agree, wherever we are, we are "home"-- everyone wants the same things.
Hello Amanda! This quote is at once deeply true, beautiful and resonant: 'It has made me understand fully that we are all in this together, that we are not separate no matter how many miles there may be between the places we call home. No matter how many differences we are led to believe there are between us because of our nationality, ethnicity, religion, gender, social class, bank balance or job title.' Dang woman - have you ever traveled :)! Right on! We have much in common. I very much enjoyed immersing this piece. To answer your question, I have lived in CA my entire life, and LOVE it here! However, my Spirit is nomadic, and I move as my Spirit feels. Home for me, is wherever I Am, though in each space it takes some time to acclimate! Each place draws such a unique vibration of Souls, doesn't it? I love that, and akin to you ... I love to hear/see/feel what each group of Souls is learning and focused on in each place I travel to. I was home-free for a year in 2012, (which became home-full, even during that time, as I traveled through the U.S and stayed with so many amazing Souls). So far, that year was one of the most profound, deep, years of learning in this life - the lessons were laden in Light and depth beyond all measure. In the now, I am stoked to be in yet another round of exploration. Looking forward to hearing about your upcoming trip to Greece! Glad we met.
It was! ... and boy does travel ever awaken/align us, ever more, in Soul i.e., in ever more of all that we Are! There were many challenges laden in that time period, and many joys as well. Re: home, figured as much, based on how you approach and interact here, which is wonderful. :)
What a beautiful post, Amanda. Your comment Everyone, everywhere, is the same, really struck me because I spent a year in China (I know you said you've not been and it's probably changed a lot since I was there in the 95/96) which is a very different culture from the one I knew/know. When I came home I was asked what I'd learned and I said: Everyone, everywhere is the same. I also learned that I was a homebody - saying that, your nomadic life sounds hard work but amazing. xx
What were you doing there for a year, Sharon? I’d have loved to go there back then before online times. That everyone everywhere is the same is the biggest thing I’ve learned in all this travel. Which has been amazing but, yes, also hard work at times! 💙
teaching English as a foreign language. Fabulous experience, wonderful people. That's right, before online. I met someone (just twice) before I went. We wrote to one another for eleven months, he visited for my last three weeks, and now we've been married for 27 years!
Ah what a brilliant love story!
Thank you for sharing, Amanda. This must have been not easy.
I enjoyed how you combine the beautiful memories and travel experience with painful childhood memories 😊
Thanks Jana. I’m glad you enjoyed it 😊
I love your autobiographical pieces—this one has the added pull for me of being anthropological (why are we the way we are?). I knew we resonated by having the Lao Tzu and the Tao in common, then you went and excerpted one of my own favorite quotes from Echhart Tolle.
I’ve not travelled much—certainly not as often as you. I should explore THAT myself by writing on it. Maybe it’s because my upbringing was seemingly much more stable, and therefore the wanderlust pull never materialized. Maybe I never had the example in my life of how beneficial travel would be—especially for someone like me who loves to study other peoples. Maybe poverty and money worries got in the way. Regardless, one of the joys of learning is that it can be done vicariously through the lives of others. And when one finds someone with similar interests, and who is such a gifted writer, then, like Tolle alludes, they were meant to be in our lives then too—as our guides on further journeys we’ll never make, except through their words.
Thanks Kert. I’m happy to hear that you enjoy them as I like writing them. And yet another shared interest emerges! I do think there is some connection between my wanderlust and the instability of my young life. My husband is prone to wander too (obviously!) and his childhood was chaotic also. So yes, maybe not having such upheaval made you more of a homebody.
Hi Amanda, I have just read about your fascinating life! With such a shaky start, is it any wonder that you were , later, keen on wandering?! In my opinion, travelling, enriching your life and meeting different people, is so valuable to a writer. I had a disrupted life in that World War 11 intruded, and I was evacuated three times to different places (quite an education...) Earlier, I couldn 't have wished for better, more stable and loving parents, so am hugely grateful to them. I later wrote a Memoir, taking in the war and my experiences.) Fast forward, I was very lucky to meet a charismatic, loving man who had 'itchy feet,' and after marriage found myself living in Canada...(time of the Suez
Crisis) , and we lived and worked in Toronto for 18, fascinating months. Homesick, we returned to the UK and I then had three, worthy sons. Motherhood and Business followed, but in between, we travelled a fair amount to several countries, which I loved. We also moved many times...As I say - home is where your heart is! We lived in Romford, Essex for several years but retired to Spain 24 years ago and have now been married 71. happy years. With a great love of words and writing, I have had nine books published and the 10th awaits a publisher (?) It was nice 'talking' to you. All the very best for the future. Cheers!
Thanks for sharing your story, Joy. Sounds like you’ve had a fascinating life too. 72 years married - amazing! Good luck with the 10th book.
I've lived in the same home for 23 years, not traveling much due to job and pet constraints. I love the land we have with its walking paths and garden and old vegetable cannery. I would love to see more of the US and the world. One of my dreams is to travel the US in an RV, just going from town to town to meet other where they live. To explore the wonders of nature. I've always lived with the feeling that home is truly where my heart is, though I have a distinct longing for the land my family left when I was 13. Thank you for sharing your experiences. I love to read about how others make their way in this world.
Wow 23 years! It sounds like a lovely place. Where in the world are you? Home definitely is where the heart is.
I live in the US along the Maryland/Pennsylvania border. It's still quite rural though I'm an hour from Baltimore if I want big city vibes.
Oh gosh, do I love this post -- not only learning more about you, Amanda, but also resonating with and sharing your urge to be what I call a "citizen of the world" (even though I can't come close to your list of places visited and lived in). I'm so glad your globetrotting has provided a sort of healing for the younger you who dreamed of escape. And I LOVE that you and your husband have found ways to craft your lifestyle around that, so you could keep on travelling. This was a joy to read!
Ah thanks, Jeanne. I’m glad you enjoyed it. I was inspired to write it after reading your memoir!
I'm honored.
You hit the nail on the head with your last line I think. You can travel around, but it's about the stillness inside yourself. As long as you've got that, you're golden. The world needs travellers and explorers and adventurers, else we'd be pretty stagnant.
Thanks Sophie. Yes it is about that, which in my earlier years of travels I didn’t really have. But I’m getting there more and more each day!
That was beautiful, Amanda. Though my travel history isn't as far and wide as yours, my husband and I bounced around until we came to the same conclusion: Everyone, everywhere is the same. And any "where" is just as good as any other "where" when you're pursuing a life you can live instead of just plod through. I loved this so much. 💙
Thanks Loretta. I’m glad you liked it. We’ll stop moving one day when we feel like the somewhere is the right place for us to live. Maybe we already found it in Greece…💙
Thanks for sharing such an interesting story, Love this 🥰🥰🥰
Thank you! I’m happy that you enjoyed it 😊
Thank you, Amanda. It’s so good to see how you’ve used mindfulness and meditation to come to a place of peace in your life.
I have long been a nomadic soul here in the U.S., having lived and visited 46 of the 50 states. Just this year I intentionally decided to permanently settle in one place which is Fort Collins, Colorado. Life has been quite the dance.
Only 4 more to go! Are you going to go and visit them now that you have made a home?
Yes, indeed. The remaining states are Montana, North Dakota, Alaska, and Hawaii.
Look forward to hearing about your adventures in the remaining states.
Born and grew up in Wales. Studied and stayed several years in England. Now settled in France for more than 25 years. Numerous holidays in various countries. I believe it opens your mind to experience different cultures, languages and landscapes. Something we seem to have passed on to our children, one of whom has been living and working in the southern hemisphere for 5 years and constantly changes location ever since leaving home 13 years ago.
I agree, Jane. It definitely opens your mind. Where in France are you? We’re considering moving there once my Irish passport comes through. A friend of ours bought a house there recently and we’re going to go and visit him next year and check out the area.
We're in Normandy, close to Le Havre. The weather's similar to Wales, just a couple of degrees warmer but the lifestyle's more relaxed.
I’m hoping to go live somewhere with much nicer weather than Wales! I’ve spent lots of time in north Devon over the past 12 years and can see south Wales from here. Our weather and theirs is very similar. Wet and windy most of the time!
"And even though I’ve never been still for long in the physical world, the journey I’ve been on has led me to a great stillness in my inner world that goes with me everywhere, all of the time." Yes! While I haven't traveled much internationally (I'd love to do that!), I have traveled and moved all over the U.S. and Canada. I ask myself the same questions over and over, "why do I do this? why can't I just stop? why can't I find a place I don't eventually feel the need to leave?" As we look at moving yet again next year, I've just decided that this is me. I move. Maybe someday, I'll stop. This attitude helps me not to spend as much time and energy on the questions (and also, not make myself feel guilty for not staying put like I "should."). Thank you Amanda!
Yes I’ve had to just accept that I move too! We can’t make ourselves not do it as then we’d be going against our nature, I believe. I’m sure one day both of us will find ourselves in a place and realise we haven’t left and don’t want to. Maybe!
Maybe! I figure at some point I won’t move any more because I’ll die😆.
Ha yes that will definitely happen one day! Maybe we’ll die while moving to our next destination 😂
Yes! Love that!
Very genuine, Amanda! I have traveled and been a bit nomadic, too. It has been a challenge for a "career" and great for a vocation- I learn a lot by traveling, and some of that experience forms/ supports my art and writing. I agree, wherever we are, we are "home"-- everyone wants the same things.
Careers are not all they’re cracked up to be! I’ve learned a lot too and it definitely informs my writing of both fiction and non.
Exactly! Nor are a lot of our societal norms.
Nope. Most everything seems pretty mad to me!
Hello Amanda! This quote is at once deeply true, beautiful and resonant: 'It has made me understand fully that we are all in this together, that we are not separate no matter how many miles there may be between the places we call home. No matter how many differences we are led to believe there are between us because of our nationality, ethnicity, religion, gender, social class, bank balance or job title.' Dang woman - have you ever traveled :)! Right on! We have much in common. I very much enjoyed immersing this piece. To answer your question, I have lived in CA my entire life, and LOVE it here! However, my Spirit is nomadic, and I move as my Spirit feels. Home for me, is wherever I Am, though in each space it takes some time to acclimate! Each place draws such a unique vibration of Souls, doesn't it? I love that, and akin to you ... I love to hear/see/feel what each group of Souls is learning and focused on in each place I travel to. I was home-free for a year in 2012, (which became home-full, even during that time, as I traveled through the U.S and stayed with so many amazing Souls). So far, that year was one of the most profound, deep, years of learning in this life - the lessons were laden in Light and depth beyond all measure. In the now, I am stoked to be in yet another round of exploration. Looking forward to hearing about your upcoming trip to Greece! Glad we met.
I’m glad we met too. And yes, home definitely is wherever I am. Travel feeds the soul and your year of being house free sounds wonderful.
It was! ... and boy does travel ever awaken/align us, ever more, in Soul i.e., in ever more of all that we Are! There were many challenges laden in that time period, and many joys as well. Re: home, figured as much, based on how you approach and interact here, which is wonderful. :)
Yep there’s always challenges whatever we’re doing and wherever we are! And thank you for the compliment about my way of being 🙏😊
Opportunities to learn are so where it's at 😉! You are most welcome Amanda.
🙏😊.