Greetings from Thailand!
Well I've completed a 5 month circuit from Thailand to Bali to Malta to Italy to South Africa to Namibia & Botswana to Italy and finally back to Thailand...and I am ready to enter a phase of rest and reflection on the trips that were and how they'll shape the trips to come.
It was a whirlwind of meeting new friends and old, hiking, sailing, eating and just everything...living life surrounded by more of the new than the familiar. I haven't integrated enough of it to be able to say anything more coherent than that, but I think I know what I'm trying to get out of it all.
In the course of meeting tons of new members and reconnecting with those I've travelled with before, I observed times when the groups really gelled and times when they didn't, and also saw some people make almost immediate deep connections with people in a friends-for-life kind of way.
That latter group would be I think the holy grail of a community like Wheel & Anchor. Ultimately it's not something that can be constructed, but only given form and intention in the right way that opens people to connecting on all sorts of levels...and then letting things unfold as they occasionally magically do.
I would say odds are most people in your life are not travellers. And, even though it feels like everyone is travelling right now, people who travel are still a relatively small percentage of everybody. And it's an even smaller group if you're looking for people who travel for the kind of reasons this community does.
Because of this I place a very high value on making new friends to travel with. Every pursuit of a passion will expand you; travel does this more than most.
Having people to expand with is probably not how most of us think about it, but in the big picture those people probably end up being part of some of the best experiences of your life.
So goes the saying 'it ain't what you do, it's how you do it', and I think it's a worthy ideal for us to work toward. Mastering the logistical part of trip creation is just part of the game...figuring out how to help people connect more and on deeper levels is the infinite part.
It's a lofty and frankly difficult goal...but really, why not? If it resonates people then we've accomplished the first step, and we'll keep trying to grasp that je ne sais quois aspect of it all and figure out how to integrate it even more into our travel experiences.
So, lots to think about for me along with finalizing details of a number of new trips. In things upcoming, you'll find the webinar link below for our upcoming webinar on a delightful jaunt through both islands of New Zealand in March 2024.
Lots more trips due out of the pipeline as I get settled in front of my desk to move some things forward...stay tuned and do reach out if you'd like to join us on an adventure.
Cheers!
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