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We procrastinate. We get sucked into our routines. We stare at our targets, gather around water coolers and coffee machines, share a few laughs and get back to our targets. We keep ‘that plan’ a little down the year. Maybe for that long weekend. Maybe when friends are free. Maybe when family has time. Maybe when the boss won’t mind. And many maybes down the line, ‘that plan’ feels like a bit of a parchment paper. Very dear but very faded. I say, leap. Do not wait for the perfect moment, the perfect partner, the perfect weather. Take what you get and get out. As often as your life permits. Because what lies at the other end are tiny realizations that add to your ability to smile. One small step at a time.

 Here is a collective of my 13 realizations. And am collecting more every month:

1. Once you feel the beauty of varied people and culture, vastness of the Universe and the wow of nature, you know that the world is a much bigger place than your crummy problems.
2. That passions, if at all they differ, is expressed in exactly the same way.
3. That lovers fight and make up in a language that you will understand anywhere in the world.
4. That the language of friends is the same everywhere. They giggle and gossip over a cup of tea, coffee, beer, sunshine, sangria…
5. That all modern art can be mind numbing, whichever country it is in.
6. That all kinds of artists are endearingly eccentric.
7. That music makes more sense to you when you find it suddenly. Whichever country, whichever genre, whichever language. 
8. That when you are in ‘traveler mode’ you can adapt to strange and unfamiliar  much quickly. And with great ease. 
9. That strangers are helpful. Very. Specially if you have had the good sense to pick the opposite sex for directions.
10. That experimenting with food reintroduces you to the rusting curious in you.
11. That what you have left behind at home is worth returning to.
12. That what you have picked up while travelling, gives you your money’s worth in many intangible ways. Through many stories, rich encounters, a flare and that inner glow. 
13. That this is probably the only right kind of wrong. An addiction that is nurturing.

This note is for all my friends, readers and procrastinators at large. There will always be time problems, visa problems, travel partner problems, money problems, work commitments and all the works. The trick is to keep it simple and not over think it. And if at all think much, then think about it as a learning process. Or as I do. A therapy in itself for all the problems that crowd you.

Hence, whenever there seems even a tiny possibility, I would say… just do it. 

Travelling solo through Paris on a world cup weekend