We all live in bubbles to some respect, operating our daily existence in a relatively finite collection of sets and routines. Our family plays out it’s daily routine from an island bubble most of the time, giving us one of our inspirations for Project “Live-Outside-The-Bubble” Equator. But as we venture out across the globe, immersing ourselves in new cultures, experiencing new routines and foreign traditions, a totally new, extant bubble of being “on the road” has formed over the 7 of us. The preciousness of this fragile, special, fleeting bubble never became more apparent as I left the family behind in Yangshuo, China to drop back into life in the United States for a while. Like an actor in The Truman Show, I have left idyllic set of karst peaks and climbed up to the lunar control room high above Seahaven, getting a behind the scenes look at the ongoing play of our global adventure.
It’s a surreal experience re-entering America after nearly 7 months. I stepped on American territory first in Toronto, entering through a gate at the airport terminal declaring my official entry into the country, opposite the gleaming green and white mermaid sign pointing towards home. In a wash of patriotism, my first reentry point was Washington DC, kicking off my first of many meetings to get our new venture, Teneology, off of the ground.
After visiting so many amazing, chaotic, bustling international cities, Washington’s luxuriously spacious neighborhoods, broad avenues and organized traffic felt decadent. Just a couple of days ago, I was peddling my 2-seater bicycle, Otto in tow, through the continuous pulse of motorbikes, electric trucks, noisy cars and every manner of pedaled vehicles surrounded by a cacophony of neon Chinese characters, propaganda billboards and vendors squatting on all available sidewalks hawking their wares. Now, as I jogged up the National Mall, the pristine organization and sheer massiveness of the multitude of marble facades seemed completely unreal. The sidewalks and convenient walking paths lined with every conceivable shop, restaurant and convenience, all neatly tucked behind clean sheets of glass and well-kept facades made me feel slightly disoriented as I ran past.
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Pausing my run for a breadth (OK, a lot of breadths) in front of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, I gazed at Michelle Obama’s celebrated kitchen garden and was struck by the contrast to the markets with piles of fresh produce, meat and fish carted into the city by donkeys and motorbikes each morning, laid out on muddy cobblestones through the twisted, smoky alleys of Marrakech and felt a sense of disconnection. It left me longing for a fried worm cake and a glass of Hanoi street beer as hordes of baby joggers, Lulu Lemon spandex and machine-cut army joggers breezed past me.
Now, as I sit at our kitchen table, with our three dogs lounging at my feet, the disorientation has begun to fade. Between stops in Austin, Denver, Vancouver and now Seattle, my familiar life has fallen into place almost too quickly. It’s as if in a blink of an eye, 7 months of travelling across the globe has evaporated with a pop, Besides a new bulk food center at the South End QFC and the loss of one of our ornamental trees in the garden, it appears as if little has changed in our old bubble. Except, as I look out over the rich green trees and the snow capped Olympics beyond the lake, everything feels enhanced, kind of like seeing a high definition television screen for the first time.
It’s a cliché, but the reality is that we have it pretty good. It is a wonderful bubble we operate in, and the excitement of building a new company again washes over me like a welcome soak in the hot tub after a long day. Seeing friends and family after so many months, meeting creative entrepreneurs building exciting ventures and piecing together a new future with Lisa for life when we inevitably all pierce the travel bubble is its own adventure. But I am realizing that our nomadic family unit living in the ever-present bubble of wanderlust, exploration and connection has shifted my perspective, knocking out a complacency I had been previously unaware of.
While on one hand piercing the bubble and stepping into the control room for a few weeks is kind of a bummer, I think it will help focus and crystalize the last 4 months of the trip for all of us. When you’re in the moment, experiencing everything the world has to offer, time can stand still. Stepping out for a brief interlude shows me just how fast our world adventure is speeding by, and offers a glimpse at how the completion of this journey will alter all our bubbles to come in a very cool way. I am counting the days until I fly back home, on the other side of the world, safely back in the bubble of Project Equator where I can continue to connect, explore and learn!
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