Travel is vital for a healthy sense of perspective. And I don’t mean tourist-type travel…the kind where you stay at a fancy hotel, visit an amusement park or two, meet and speak with only your waiter or waitress at a trendy, or worse, chain restaurant. I have found during my travels to explore wandering walks around the world that it’s important to get into the real heart of the land you are visiting – be it a small town an hour away from your home or across the ocean to another country. To really get to know the world you need to spend time speaking to the people who live in the world.

It’s a wonderful experience to speak with others in another area of your country, to get their take on how they see the world, your city, your country. It’s exciting to see how families treat their spouses, children, and elders. Maybe they have better ways than you do. Maybe you can confirm your ways are just fine. Take time, as you wander around, to appreciate how others keep their pets, farms, and businesses.

Every year this world is shrinking; there’s no longer any excuse for xenophobia or “my culture’s ways is THE right way!” thinking. We all have to live on this planet. Understanding and respect for differing viewpoints, traditions, and lifestyles is the only way we will all get along and, ultimately, survive.

We’ve often heard the saying to “walk in another’s shoes” – but we don’t ask ourselves why that is important. I love traveling to other countries and “walk” in their shoes for a while. I love heading out two hours away to see how others in towns much different than my own see the world. It’s through this kind of walking – walking in the shoes of those whose lifestyle and culture is much different than my own – that I can learn new, more fulfilling, and life-altering experiences that help me to grow as a person.

My wanderings around my country, or any other country, may not change the world. But, it will help me to understand that everyone has a unique place on this plant and only by working (and walking) together will we help this planet to evolve into something greater than it is today.