The writing prompt asks: “What change, big or small, would you like your blog to make in this world?”

I’ve touched on the answer to this question circuitously, I think, on my “Home” and “About” pages. I want this blog to be effective enough to enable you to feel as if you are travelling along with me; to sense my excitement at new knowledge, to experience my trepidation when I am afraid or anxious about the unfamiliar, to want to taste what I’m tasting, to feel the heat or cold or wet, to be exhilarated at times, and to be incredibly uncomfortable occasionally, too. I want you to somehow have a greater understanding of these faraway places and to either long for them as I do or be satisfied that you’ve vicariously travelled with me. If my blog can accomplish this for even a few readers, a key objective has been accomplished.

But there is a greater desire in writing this blog. It is the one that compels me the most and is truly sparked by the larger change I hope to effect in the hearts of my readers. And, it is this:

It truly does not matter if you are wealthy or multilingual or beautiful or thin or educated or outgoing or brave. Most – if not all – excuses, I firmly believe, can be refuted. I am not very brave, am definitely not thin, and am quite shy and introverted. I am not wealthy. Nor am I multilingual (not even bilingual, really). I often travel faraway completely alone, feeling a bit sad, praying that I return home safely to everyone who loves me and fully knowing that I may not.

But, I have learned that if I let any of these perfectly good reasons for not travelling actually prevent me from going, the air I take in will be thinner. My heart will not beat as robustly. My senses will be dulled. My world will contract. I will lose a significant piece of myself. So, go I must. It is no longer a choice but a mandate. A lovingly tyrannical dream.

And the dream never wavers: I breathe it every second.

Your dream, too, may be of travel. In which case, if you desire to go, go.

But if your dream is of something else, then do it, too.

Do not let your perfectly good reasons and excuses keep you from your dreams.

If you desire to go, then go. If you desire to do, then do.

Let nothing stop you. Nothing.

And, perhaps, in some way, this blog may help you to go or to do whatever it is your dream demands of you.