#aninnocentabroad

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We were away from home, and through the paradigm-shifting power of travel, I felt emboldened.

Jim Benning, “War Story”

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'That you are a worldly adult,' she said. 'You have spent your whole life letting go of the innocent dreams that made your childhood so warm and hopeful and full of certainty. Dream by dream you let them go. We all do it, to shield ourselves from disappointment. It's easy to shed them. Not so easy to get them back.

John Berendt, “Fiora’s Niche”

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The only thing more dangerous that going forward is going back.

Jenna Scatena, “A Walk with a Cave Man”

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One of the things that I've learned in my wanderings is that travel demands a certain amount of trust from us. This trust may sometimes seem naïve, but if we were to let our fear of fear have its way, we would never set off on a trip - indeed, we might never leave our homes. For as soon as we step out of the door, off the edge, and open ourselves to the world, we also open ourselves to the possibility that things may not always be safe. But I have found the rewards the world offers us are almost always worth the risk.

Candace Rose Rardon, “Two Angels in Anatolia”

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The reasons you decide to go someplace are rarely logical.

Richard Ford, “Innocents Abroad”

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I don't believe in heaven or an afterlife, but I've felt my mother's presence within me every day since she died and hear her voice, too, and always it says only one word. It's what she wanted for me and what she didn't get for herself: Go.

Cheryl Strayed, Forty-Five, An Innocent Abroad

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All travel is about such decipherment. One minute you're lost at a crossroads studying a map's mysterious markings, the next, the world lines up with the map's abstractions, so you can pinpoint where inside that map you're standing. Even where English is spoken, you have to learn new languages, master new forms.

Mary Karr, The Accidental Eco-Tourist, An Innocent Abroad