Rolf Potts - The Vagabonds Way: 366 Meditations on Wanderlust, Discovery, and the Art of Travel

In studying classic works of literature from across the centuries, one finds that the most affecting travel tales depict journeys as a metaphor for life itself. These stories dont presume to tell us where to go or what to do, but they do show how journeys can enlarge ones way of being in the world. These tales dont prescribe rules for living; they simply inspire us, by their very example, to live in a more engaged and dynamic way. Indeed, the purest approach to getting the most out of a journey has never revolved around itemized lists of travel strategies: The vagabonds way has always involved a simple and open attitude, a mindset that is inseparable from the way we pay attention to life itself.

This older, more philosophical way of understanding our journeys is too often overlooked in our time, when the act of travel is marketed as a lifestyle accessory. In presenting far-flung landscapes as destinations, the travel industry encourages us to think of places as consumer productsa faintly interchangeable mix of landscapes against which we can shop, dine, and take photos. By this standard, Nepal and Greece offer a mountains-and-monasteries product, whereas Rome and Mexico City serve up museums-and-cathedrals travel options, and Sri Lanka and the Dominican Republic tout competing sand-and-sea selections. The more were encouraged to see the world through a commercial lens, the less likely we are to seek out the humbler qualitiespatience, receptivity, introspectionthat compel us to experience the world in a life-enriching way.

At its best, travel is embraced not as a flashy backdrop for our lifestyle ambitions, but as an act that touches every aspect of our being. Travel is not a swaggering declaration of self, undertaken to impress other people; it is a quiet inquiry, requiring awareness, resilience, and openness to change. Travel is not a hard science that can be cracked open with some algorithmic formula; it is a nuanced art, expressed through joyous, ragged-edged, mindful practice. Travel is not some consumer product you buy into; it is something that you gift to yourself.

Over the course of 366 one-page meditations (one for each day of a leap year), The Vagabonds Way mimics the progression of a journeytravel inspiration and planning, getting started on the road, expanding ones comfort zone, learning from the quiet complexities of the journey, and circling back home. As with a journey, these meditations are best approached slowly, one day at a time, reflecting on each days nuances before moving on to the next. Though this book can technically be read from cover to cover in a few days, it is designed to be taken in incremental doses, in the same manner that one might visit the gym or dance studiosteadily benefiting from the daily ritual over the course of a year.

The Vagabonds Way is about the mindset that can enlarge each day on the road, however long the journey might be. Though some of the historical and literary allusions in these pages refer to travels that spanned multiple continents over the course of many years, its insights apply as readily to short-term, close-to-home journeys. And while the word vagabond is traditionally defined as a person who wanders from place to place without a fixed home, this book affirms that travel is as much a way of being as it is an act of movement.

Some travel themes reappear in these pages, in slightly different form, numerous times over the course of the year. Often, these recurring themes reinforce the kinds of issues the travel industry would have us ignoreissues like traveling light, going slow, letting go of rigid plans, staying open to surprise, embracing boredom, celebrating disorientation, shutting off our technology, spending less money, wandering away from tourist zones, looking beyond cultural stereotypes, and developing travel habits that benefit local economies. These thematic repetitions are deliberate, and serve as a kind of gentle refrain that encourages the reader to consider and reconsider these travel virtues.

At its best, this book will not just explore ideas about mindful travel; it will make you want to travel (and, in doing so, to enrich your life in ways you dont yet understand).

If, midway through reading this book, you fling it aside because it doesnt quite fit into the luggage for a journey youve concluded you can no longer postpone, it has done its job.