"Oh nature guide me on my way,
The wandering stranger's guide,
Who o'er the tombs of holy bygone times,
Is passing
To a kind and sheltered place
From North winds safe,
Where a poplar grove,
Shuts up the noontide ray."
-Goethe
My earliest living memory is of the world zipping past through the window of a Jeep while my mom carried me on her lap. I remember that the biggest thrill of it was that every bend of the road brought a new thing that I had never seen before. Many more miles have since passed by and I have seen a lot more of the world but I'm still enjoy the anticipation of a new experience....
In my relatively short lifetime I've had the good fortune to live a dozen countries across four continents and the opportunity to visit many more. Most of it was being dragged along by my mother's arm as my dad embarked on his career in the Diplomatic corps .......moving from one corner of the world to the next.
Sometimes the forced life of a nomad was difficult for us kids (My brother J and sister M we're my early co-passengers in our world adventure with my baby brother R joining us later). Every three years or so my dad would get his transfer order and we'd be off leaving behind friends, memories and bits of ourselves in places we once called home. That transfer letter was always anticipated with a mix of excitement and trepedation..even by my dad. Its not easy buliding a new life that you know you are going have to tear down in a short time.
But his space is not about that...this space is to a large extent, about the things I experienced between all the moving around. Things you learn only by being there.... in muddy marketplaces.......in smoky pubs and foggy street corners. It is about change and movement and discovering new and exciting things. Its about food, its about drink, its about travel and its about people......
So enjoy, criticise, judge and comment....don't worry I've got a thick skin.
