Thoughts at Year’s End

And thank you for reading

My wife receives a blessing at a temple in Phuket.

This is my first year on Substack. I came here to write about travel and life outside my birth nation (the USA). It is the only aspect of me that, I think, provides an engaging narrative and, hence, content worth presenting. I began traveling with my parents at age seven, and first moved overseas soon after. That song has continued playing, with a few interruptions, for 50 years. What I write about is as geographically scattered as my life.

I know very well what I am doing. At my age, I should be! But that said, living, working, and traveling this way is a challenge that never ends. The details become predictable and manageable, but the fundamentals take the same extraordinary energy and commitment they always have. Everything has to be brought to the table, every time. For both my family and me.

We could drop it all and ‘settle down’ in the US, but the thought tastes like lead. Even if I leave out my personal issues with where the country is moving. Experiencing new places as often as possible is non-negotiable. So many places, points of view, visions of the future. They all mean something greater than the sum of their parts. Expanding on John Muir’s statement about tugging on one strand of nature and finding it connected to the whole world, the same applies to the thoughts and actions of humans.

I did some traveling this year, both with my family and with friends, almost exclusively to destinations I had never been to before in Africa and Asia. This included the part of Thailand we eventually chose to live for the time being, the island of Phuket. The process of moving here and securing a place to live, the adjustment to our new rights and responsibilities, and finding a school for my daughter was all-consuming, partly because we did it without outside help (which resulted in a few avoidable mistakes). Visa protocols placed temporary restrictions on our movement upon arrival in Thailand, so we defaulted to domestic travel for months on end. Most of that is sorted now.

I want to thank everyone who has followed, subscribed, and engaged with my content via likes, comments, and live chatting. Every interaction is golden. On the flip side, I have found innumerable stories and notes by others that are meaningful and enriching to me. Some of us met here; others I already knew from Medium; and still others I knew long before I chose to write anything other than a personal journal. I intend to share many more stories with you all in 2026. I have so many travel plans in the works! Far more than is realistic, from a time or financial perspective.

My resolution this coming year is the same as it always is: Go big or go home.