And know the place for the first time...

We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of all our exploring

Will be to arrive where we started

And know the place for the first time.

(T.S. Eliot)

Among the many other reasons I could ramble on and on about, I love words for their ability to preserve moments beautifully, nostalgically. Such is usually my inspiration for writing; I'm typically trying to capture something with a carefully woven net of words that otherwise threatens, with every passing minute, to slip irretrievably through my fingers. T.S. Eliot, though, in the quote above, does something I admire: he epitomizes an otherwise indescribable experience. To me, this is the most incredible feat a writer can accomplish, much like charting undiscovered territory.

I'm an adventurer. That's common knowledge. When people marvel at my always-surprising life from their own perspectives, I fumble over words to describe where my motivation comes from. How does one explain the feeling of possibility at the tipping point of a new beginning? How does one put into words the spectacularly swirling emotions of coming home after a long journey?

T.S. Eliot captures a facet of adventure and homecoming that I've struggled to hammer down. He touches on the notion that exploring beyond one's starting point grants one more wisdom and capacity to understand the place in which one started. Beyond that, I think, is a more novel idea; "to arrive where we started / and know the place for the first time" suggests that one only fully understands the value of leaving and the role leaving plays in the grand narrative of one's life upon the return to the starting point. An awakening, if you will. This, my friends, is where I am today.

After returning from 8 months of life in a suitcase and constant uprooting, I better understand my starting place and, therefore, myself. I'm writing from my favorite corner of the world just as I have for years, but today I have a new perspective than ever before. Because I have pushed my own limits and explored beyond imagined boundaries that I had subconsciously constructed over time, I better understand my beginning. Sometimes it is even as if I am seeing and feeling and understanding things for the first time. I appreciate simplicities of home more than ever, almost as novelties, but I also better understand myself and my values. More than anything, I understand where I come from and I am more thankful than ever for the experiences and opportunities my "home" of places and people granted me, readying me for adventure after adventure.

Now... what adventure is next?