image — roadside chapel, Portugal
Place
7 min
Twelve miles past the last sign
The chapel was locked, the caretaker was at lunch, and the drive was the whole thing anyway.
Follow curiosity beyond the familiar.
Follow curiosity into new places, experiences, questions, and possibilities. Explore is rooted in wonder, movement, learning, openness, discovery, and the courage to leave what is familiar.
Exploring is not the same as escaping. It is the willingness to be a beginner again — in a country, a kitchen, a book, a conversation you have been avoiding. Most of it happens closer to home than the word suggests.
What you find is rarely what you went looking for. That is the point, and also the risk.
What is one place within an hour of you that you have never bothered to see?
The chapel was locked, the caretaker was at lunch, and the drive was the whole thing anyway.
You are not lonely. You are just the only person in the room without a plan.
Nobody swims. Everybody stops.
Fifty-two attempts, forty of them mediocre.
Each one moved a border I thought was fixed.
Fluency was never the assignment.
Fewer days, closer, sooner.
Two hours out of the way and the best afternoon of the trip.
No practice stands alone. Each one keeps handing you off to another.
Go somewhere you cannot describe yet.
One Saturday. No research beyond the directions. Bring back one detail you could not have predicted, and write it down before you get home.
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