I think a lot about happiness. What makes life good? I don’t make much money and I often make myself feel guilt that I am not earning enough. But, then this last weekend happened and the amount of money in my account was the furthest thing from my mind.
In high school I dreamed of a life of travel. So, no wonder when I stepped into Munro’s office to see a massive framed map of India with highlighted routes, pictures from far off lands tacked to the bulletin board, a rug that reminded me of the Turkish rugs that furnished our house, the rugs my parents had bought in Turkey before I was born.
Munro and his office kept my interest much more than the 16 year old social scene. He had had adventures and a perspective vastly different than any other grown up I had ever met.
I’ll never forget wandering into his office one day telling him about this trip I had found to go to the palm forests of Paraguay and live and study an indigenous tribe there. It was a pipe dream for me but with Munro’s perspective and encouragement, it was a possibility. And hence, the road is life as a way of life was born at 18 years old.
This bravery for the open road would have never happened with out my teacher. In a world full of people telling you life is hard and you can’t do certain things, having someone believe that you can easily do whatever it is your heart desires was one of my greatest gifts in life.
Munro was just out visiting the last few days. And this is what I think about happiness...happiness is about the people in your life. I can’t tell you how much it means to me that my teacher is still in my life after all these years and that he came to visit.
We toured, we hiked but I think my favorite part was drinking wine and eating Cowgirl Creamery cheese at sunset, chilling out, him doing his NY Times crossword puzzle and me reading a book. With good friends, you can be utterly content doing the simplest things with them.
So people, your community, create happiness and the other thing I think that helps, is a good view. And we sure had plenty of those.
I am blessed to already have so many good people out in the Bay Area–friends and family and to my delight the plans keep rolling in, my people from all over the world are planning trips out. I might not have a big savings account from life on the road but a global community of people that will always be near and dear to my heart, that make an effort to visit is the biggest success of all.