I retired from work around 2001. Every night is Saturday night, and any day can be a lazy Sunday. I feel tremendously grateful for this privilege.
Goal: Currently, I’m traveling to distant places and hiking pilgrimages by myself. My focus is to better understand myself and my place in the world. My goal is to design the next phase of my life. I don’t want to follow the same routines I did in high school, going to college, raising a child, or working. I think expecting a happy and fulfilling life by accident is unrealistic.
Who: I'm a seeker. That's the best word I have for now. I'm defined and moved by curiosity. I want to know the world in all its forms. The inner world, the outer world, and the in-between places. I rage against the status quo. I need constant upgrades.
While I can not capture everything in an image, I usually carry a camera. Carefully picturing things helps me focus on what I’m feeling.
Travel: I seldom travel to rest. Once in a blue moon, I need a week at a beach with nothing to do. It never lasts a week. I rarely go to big cities for sightseeing. I went on one cruise forty years ago and can’t understand the purpose of going to 8 islands in 7 days.
To paraphrase Bill Bryson, I cherish going to places where I’m ignorant of almost everything, don’t know the language, the food, the customs, or even how to cross the street safely. "Child-like wonderment."
Besides going to strange places, I love going into a stranger's life. My idea of understanding a place is not listening to a cheesy tour guide repeating the same stuff I can read in a book. I rather listen to a fortune teller that forces me to rethink why I was a non-believer.