Traveling Slowly. Living With Less. Seeing More.

When I’m back in the States, I’m on a different kind of journey, and my grandchildren are such a big part of it. If I’m wise, I pay close attention to what they bring into my life, because I keep realizing that they touch something in me I don’t want to lose.

When you walk, the world has time to show itself. There’s the light on a building, the feel of a street, the little corner where people gather, or the old man taking his morning walk. You hear bits of conversation and catch the smell of coffee, fresh bread, or the sea if you’re lucky. None of this makes the news, but it does make the day feel more human.

After returning from our recent six-month journey, I’ve been feeling so much gratitude for this life Carla and I are able to live. I wanted to share some of that with you in the best way I know how. Thank you for taking the time to read this little tribute of thanks.

Carla and I will wrap up this chapter of our travels tomorrow, when we leave Chania, Greece, and begin our journey back to the States. We’ll stop in London for the weekend to see Carla’s sister, Eileen, and then we’ll head home for the summer. This segment of our travels began on December 8th in Turkey. From there, we made our way to Sicily, Montenegro, Croatia, and finally Greece. It has been a beautiful six months.

Imagine if someone you encountered today felt a little better because of something you said. Maybe they smile on the way home because of you. Maybe, later in the day, they remember your voice, not because you said something grand or profound, but because you noticed something in them. You noticed their effort. You noticed their kindness. You noticed the simple fact that they were trying. And for someone who needed to hear it, that can mean more than we know.

For Carla and me, there have always been two threads running through our travels. One is the simple desire to see and experience as much of this beautiful, complicated, astonishing world as we can . . . to meet new people, hear other languages, walk through unfamiliar towns, and experience the many different ways people live their lives. That part has always mattered to us. But there has been another thread running alongside it. We’ve also been looking for a new home.

Being back in Chania reminded me that places, like people, can have a soul. And Chania, perhaps more than anywhere we’ve been, wears its artistic soul openly. It also reminds me that a place can be beautiful in more than one way. There’s another layer we always hope to encounter, even if we don’t have words for it right away. But when it’s there, we know. It is the creative spirit of a place, the sense that imagination has found its way into daily life.

One of my greatest joys is photographing the places we visit. That probably comes as no surprise to those of you who have followed Carla and me as we have wandered over these past four years. I have been anything but shy about sharing my photos on Facebook, Instagram, and here on the blog, and I love this way of sharing our travels with others.

This is a busy week as we prepare to leave Montenegro and make our way to Greece, so I don’t have the time I usually like to spend refining this week’s blog. Instead, I’m leaving you with a visual parade of photos from our time in Montenegro. It is a gorgeous country, and I believe this little photo exhibition will be well worth your time. Next week, I’ll return to the regular blog. Thanks for understanding, and I hope you enjoy this beautiful visual tour of Montenegro.

Remember that old word from the 1960s . . . vibes? Well, the more Carla and I travel, the more I have come to believe that vibe of a place may be one of the most important parts of whether or not we enjoy being there. Maybe even the most important part.