Little Travelers

“You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

—Acts 1:8

Sometimes people ask me why I travel so much, and specifically why we travel with Henry and Mac so often. They think it’s easier to keep the kids at home, in their routines, surrounded by their stuff. It is. But we travel because Capri exists and Kenya exists and Tel Aviv exists, and I want to taste every bite of it. I want my kids to learn, as I learned, that there are a million ways to live, eat, dress, speak, and view the world. I want them to know that “our way” isn’t the right way, but just one way, that children all over the world, no matter how different they seem, are just like the children in our neighborhood—they love to play, to discover, to learn.

I want my kids to learn firsthand and up close that different isn’t bad, but different is exciting and wonderful and worth taking the time to understand. I want them to see themselves as bit players in a huge, sweeping, beautiful play, not as the main characters in the drama of our living room. I want my kids to taste and smell and experience the biggest possible world.