This is what it looks like

Photo. Herceg Novi, Montenegro.

PHOTO. Kotor, Montenegro.

PHOTO. Kotor, Montenegro.

Fortune

I AM FORTUNATE, to do it, have it and know it. I AM FORTUNATE to be smart enough to work, save, befriend and let go. I AM FORTUNATE to be healthy enough to go anywhere, eat anything, climb anything and sleep well. I AM FORTUNATE to have a good sense of direction that always leads me home. I AM FORTUNATE to have a strong moral compass and a good judge of character. I AM FORTUNATE to be well cared for by the universe. I AM FORTUNATE to know so. PHOTO. Road from Mostar to Sarajevo, Bosnia.

The War is Over.

 The war is over, but tell that to the broken windows, the apartment complexes, the bombed out schools, the pockmarked mosques and the countryside's landmines. The war is over, but the country is still divided, maybe more than before. The war is over, but tell that to the victims, the mothers, the sisters, the wives and the children. Tell that to the survivors and the soldiers. The war is over, but it is not over for them. There is a generation of men missing. There are hundreds of children under the age of 20 that carry the weight of a history they did not live through, but they know. The war is over, but tell that to the museums. Tell that to the journalists, tell that to the novelists. Tell that to the historians. The war is over. Tell that to the people living in the abandoned houses of their enemies. The war is over. Tell that to the people buried in the grave yards. PHOTO: Sarajevo,Bosnia. The remains of a building.

Thank knees

I am grateful for my knees and the time to use them while they still work. I have hiked to ruins of castles, abandoned hillsides, fortresses and vista points that change the way I see the world. Whether up stairs or sloped inclines, raw paths or paved stones smoothed by time. I am grateful for what my knees provide me, for what they show me and what they allow me. Thank you knees.

I am grateful for my knees and the time to use them while they still work. I have hiked to ruins of castles, abandoned hillsides, fortresses and vista points that change the way I see the world. Whether up stairs or sloped inclines, raw paths or paved stones smoothed by time. I am grateful for what my knees provide me, for what they show me and what they allow me. Thank you knees. This is true now and always, but particularly when I am reminded that the world is a dangerous place. For some the wars of the world are not over and walking is much harder and even impossible for so many. I am grateful for my knees and the time to use them. PHOTO: Warning of landmines zone in the outskirts of Sarajevo, Bosnia, along a beautiful river. A place for a picnic in other times.

Happy Endings.

Of all the books and consequently the movies that have been made about women changing their lives, traveling the world and finding themselves, to only then find the man they are looking for... This has been so much more fortuitous, dramatic, action packed and glistening with lessons to be learned and rewards for risks taken. Elizabeth Gilbert, eat my dust! I have longed for this moment, thinking that forever I might live in the shadow of Eat, Pray, Love. While I may do all those things, it is not quite for me. And why is there still always the happy ending in a man's arms? Can't the journey and the adventure be enough for a good story and even a good movie? If it doesn't end in a man's arms is it not a valid journey? When will my story be worth writing? Or is it already? PHOTO: Sierra overlooking Split, Croatia, more beautiful than I had though possible.

Hello, Goodbye. Hello.

In a world where people move so far and so fast, in a world where a stranger can become a friend, it is not uncommon to say "Hello," "Goodbye," "Hello." It has been how my weeks have been since I started traveling 2 weeks ago. I have flown from NYC to Belgium where I rode around Brussels on a bike for a day then flew to Zagreb, Croatia. I made a friend in Samobor and hiked to an abandoned castle. I took a bus to a coastal town called Pula on the recommendation of this friend. It is the only other place where the Romans built a Colosseum outside of Rome. This one may be more impressive because it is pressed up against the sea that is a color blue I have never before seen. It is there that I met people that would become family for a moment while our paths crossed and we drove together down the Croatian coast, all in awe. From town to village to national park, we twisted and turned, laughed and ate well. At the parting we said "goodbye." And before I have laid my bags down again I had met a new family for another minute, and then another. And another and another. "Hello," "Goodbye," "Hello." I have worked my way all the way down the Croatian Coast. Stepped into Bosnia to see some of the recent history and feel the past in every breathe of the present and then returned to the water. Along the coast into Montenegro where I met another soul sister living and working, learning Serbian and remembering Chinese, trying to figure out where to move next. A story I know well. "Hello." "Goodbye." "Hello." Now just 24 hours out on my own, I have chosen not to connect even though opportunity presented itself. I have walked alone even though I have not gone more than a few hours with out a conversation with someone. "Hello," "Goodbye," "Hello." It is nice to be quiet. I wonder whose will be the next path I cross. "Hello," "Goodbye," "Hello." PHOTO from the bridge in Sarajevo where Gavrilo Princip shot Arch Duke Franz Ferdinand 1914.