Because of our shared sleep deprivation, only about half of our group elected to go in search of the elephants on this morning. We quietly paddled into the inlet just behind a row of our floating cabins. As on all of our other mornings, we sat there enraptured, anticipation running high. 

This was a five-day cycling journey with a group of 16 people, mostly strangers, ages 9-65, venturing together on bikes to explore our intrinsic value through gift culture.

 I woke up with a bold idea—I needed to take a sabbatical to Africa. It didn’t feel like a decision to make, but one that had been made. I researched, planned and proposed it to my boss. He said yes.

Travel is messy.  It messes with your emotions.  It messes with your opinions and preconceived ideas.  Hell it even messes with your body clock.  But as undeniably messy as it is, it is also the greatest teacher.  It teaches life lessons you could never learn in a classroom, online or even in a self-help book. 

I’ve always considered myself a spiritual person, but never really appreciated how universally connected we all are in our hearts and souls until my first trip to India in 2010. It was one of those rare and wonderful once-in-a-lifetime journeys that taught me that travel can truly transform a life. I know, because this trip transformed my life. 

It is the little things that make a big difference and create indelible memories we can recount forever.  Travel is the best education we can give our children and ourselves.

Ten years ago when I was high in the Andes at over 13,000 feet in the small village of Umasbamba Peru,  I was inspired by a young man who had learned from a local NGO how to make efficient, smokeless ovens which heated the home an extra 20 degrees and provided warm water as well.