ingredients of a nomadic life
in part two (and year two) of this nomadic existence, I’ve been asking myself the question of what it takes to deliberately create “a life” — a life which is sustainably lived in motion — a way of travel that feels more grounded and anchored than the transient passage through a place. I know the answer is finding the balance between TRAVEL and HOME — and in my case, because I’m traveling, my main assignment is to make traveling feel like home: and that is to curate elements of comfort and predictability in a otherwise chaotic life:
home-space: a refuge for the self
familiar & favorite places: cafes, bookstores, parks, museums
familiar faces (friendships that nourish & stimulate)
a daily routine (something you do in time + place), even if it is a routine of deliberate spontaneity
in the last year — and especially with the pandemic — I’ve had long periods of time in which I felt like I was neither TRAVELING nor AT HOME. I was in a nowhere land. I was so exhausted and fatigued from always being disoriented, lost, ungrounded, not speaking the language — and with the worldwide energy of pandemic — felt that I could never experience a place fully the way I would have if I actually had a stable home to return to.
to be free is to be anchored first.
the act of making a home is an underrated practice, even (or especially) in a nomadic existence. it begins with the physical nest as refuge, but extends beyond it — into daily practices, routines, rituals — ways of engaging with the environment. really, it’s about making space and rhythms for the self to feel at ease. it’s the only home we carry.
I’ve done it before, and now I must do it again. here’s the first post I wrote on this, at the very begining of the pandemic, when I was staying alone in a studio airbnb in a small city in japan: how to feel at home anywhere.