… for here is Felipe’s traveling gift, his superpower, the secret weapon that renders him peerless: He can create a familiar habitat of reassuringly boring everyday practices for himself anyplace, if you just let him stay in one spot.
– Elizabeth Gilbert, of her Brazilian lover Felipe, from ‘Committed’
After months of endless travel, I’ve definitely felt the need to find a nest. Camping through Africa, hostel hopping through Italy, budget travel through Asia – all of it took a toll. Long term, high energy, country-hopping gets old. After a while, each city starts to feel the same: crowded, hectic, modern. It stops being fun when you fail to see the magic. This is why I stopped trying to tick countries off my long list and instead spent weeks at a time in certain cities. I spent three weeks in Bali in a small cottage in the rice fields. We played house in Vancouver for nearly a month. And now I’m here in Buenos Aires until mid June. Sometimes, it takes more than a few pictures, dinners and cab rides to find the soul of a place. And travel where I can to find the soul of a place has become more important to me.
During my early weeks here in Buenos Aires, before I began to get a grasp of the language, I found myself feeling completely isolated. We’d walk by coffee shops full of people, gathered for afternoon tea and I’d long for a group of friends to call my own with whom I could socialize over coffee with. Sometimes home feels so very far away.
But, like a hermit crab, I’ve learned to create a home wherever I happen to land. Immediately I unpack, claim drawer and closet space, find a cup to hold my toothbrush, fill a bowl full of fresh fruits, search for a favourite music station, buy plants that need watering. I don’t just stay somewhere. I move in.
And this phenomenon of being able to take any place – a hotel room, an apartment, a tent – and make of it a comfortable and familiar home, is an amazing thing. Human beings are so adaptable and often I forget just how easy it is to find contentment in a place. I’ve agonized over which city I should choose next, where I’d like to live, what kind of apartment I’d like to rent, what neighbourhood would suit my lifestyle. But then I realize that the daunting details don’t matter so much. What matters are a few simple things:
- The knowledge that nothing is permanent, that all things are temporary, that every moment is an opportunity to take in the best that any place or person has to offer.
- The knowledge that love is not bound by place or time, and that the people most important to me are just a phone call away. Love reaches out and gives infinitely.
- The knowledge that buildings, rooms, houses are just things. They are hollow spaces that become significant only when we add elements of life and love: a bundle of flowers, a home-cooked meal, a favourite book.
- The knowledge that the newness, the learning, the discomfort and the joy – all of it – are blessings that can’t be taken for granted. I am here, I am now, this is where I belong.
Last night, fresh after a rain shower, we bought giant daises from a street vendor on our walk home from Spanish school. They lean in a giant glass vase on the living room table. Fresh flowers. Another small thing that makes a big difference in the life of a hermit crab.
