A New Perspective

As I stared out at the sun, rising over Putaki bay, I started to think.

It was way too early in the morning, I'd barely had coffee, and I was on a boat, watching the ocean spread between me and the port we'd departed.

The sea was quiet, placid. Light soft. Seagulls still slumbering and fellow passengers light footed, sleepy, quiet.

And I was somewhere new.

I mean, not new new - I'd been on this ferry dozens of times before.

But never in this light. On this water. Watching the sun shift from a sliver to a disc, pouring light into the ocean, clouds, pigment.

One of the biggest reasons I travel is for moments like this. Places where nothing around me feels familiar, and everything - even how I think of myself - is up for grabs.

I thought about who I've been lately, how I've been with the people around me, felt where the stress of life had been compressed into my skeleton. Shoulders. Back. Jaw.

The air whipped past, still warm; salty.

And I smiled.

It's easy for me to forget, getting the great privilege of often getting to travel the world and experience wholly new places and cultures - that a new perspective is also right here, if I can look at things a bit different. Earlier. Later. Upside-down. Backwards. Inside-out.

I'm so grateful, this week, to remember.

Have a new week,

-Steven

p.s. The best thing I saw all week was this Senegalese artist who blew my mind in 40 seconds.