I went wandering through Zurich’s old town in search of vegan chocolate. What I found instead was a moment of warmth tucked into a tiny shop and offered freely.

Mrs. Bryan taught me to memorize paintings when I was ten. I didn’t know the map she was giving me that year would lead me, decades later, to the Rijksmuseum—and to a part of myself I had misplaced.

I judged a woman by her flaming fox sweatshirt. Then she and her mother danced circles around me—literally—and taught me a lesson I didn’t know I needed.

A Thanksgiving Kinship Walk along Seattle’s shoreline becomes a meditation on land, history, wildness, and the guides who help us hear the city’s heartbeat.

I went roller skating to feel young again. It worked—if by young you mean willing to wager your aging skeleton against nostalgia.

We stood in a tiny dressing room of a trailer, just the two of us. He held the results from the judges. The winner was clear. The woman had blown everyone away. But he hesitated. Then he turned to me and said, “What do you think? Should we give it to my buddy instead?”

Just like that, everything I had built was at risk.

This isn’t quite a travelogue. It’s more like a dream I had while awake, somewhere in Coyoacán. Every word is true—just not all of it happened in the usual way.

Our trip to Mexico City started with walking tours, tacos, and ambition. It ended with a cold, a curtain, and a surprising lesson in letting go.

When I showed up for a flamenco dinner in Seville, I wasn’t expecting a life-altering moment. I was just trying not to cry into my tapas. But then she appeared—in the corner of a tiny bar, under twinkle lights and a “no moving during the show” rule—and reminded me, with every stomp and sweep of her arm, that I still had a body. And a choice.

A solo trip to Spain wasn’t the plan. But when my travel partner disappeared into work and I found myself wandering the Alhambra with only sun, stone, and disinterested cats for company, I learned something surprising about presence, perspective—and how a well-timed feline blink can feel like emotional support.