One of  travel’s greatest gifts — one I look forward to even though it isn’t always easy — is being shaken out of my routine.  Sometimes this means dining al fresco to the sound of Spanish guitar at 10 p.m. Other times it means getting lost and walking twice as far as we need to in 104-degree heat. 

What these have in common is an intense focus on the present moment, on being here.  So today, when I found the “you are here” bullseye on a map (en Espanol, of course), those words had a completely different and more Zen-like meaning than originally intended. 

Yes, I am here and can now (theoretically) find my way home. But I am also here, now. I’m not planning this trip. I’m not looking back on it. I’m in it, in the ever-present now. I always am, of course, but travel helps me realize it.