At a recent literary event I was asked, “What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned from traveling?”

The answers came as songs in my heart:

* We are very fortunate to travel freely as women in this day and age. I also feel this is my first lifetime as a free woman.

* The world is an inherently good place filled with kind and generous people who open their hearts, minds, and lives to wandering strangers.

* The poorest people are many times the most generous.

* To cook for people on the road and share food. I always traveled in South America with a wicker basket. In it were a stove, beans, popcorn, tuna, rice, oil. I served up meals to starving explorers and Chilean fisherfolk. Heard great stories and drank a lot of wine sitting on the ground or on porches listening to their stories. For they had experiences I will never have but I can live them through the teller’s tale.

* Spontaneously dance with people. I’ve danced in strangers’ homes, on moonlit beaches, and in carnival frenzies in wicked streets. Fabulous way to meet people and you don’t need to speak their language as dance is universal!

* To keep my eyes open so I do not miss the green flash at sunset.