It is so easy for us to forget that we are but one small part of something much larger.   We live our lives, do our work, and much of the time our days are spent with many of the same people in many of the same places.  We view our problems as life or death, whether they be about work or home or family.    Everything in our lives becomes THE thing, and the rest of the world fades away.

When you travel, the luxury of believing that your problems are the most important, biggest, most complicated problems in the world is taken away.   Suddenly you are in an unfamiliar place, surrounded by people you’ve never seen before and who don’t know you from Adam.   You look around and if you are paying attention at all you see that there is so much more to the world, both good and bad, than your small part of it.

Travel, then, seems an essential part of maintaining perspective; of realizing that most of our problems are not life or death and that perhaps all we need – or the most important thing we need – is to change our own perceptions.

It doesn’t have to be BIG travel, either.   In other words, much as I would like to pack up my family and travel the world for a year or two and as much as I envy and admire those people who do, I could also spend a weekend in the Poconos and come away with a reality check.

Or the Bahamas.   Or any place you and your family can get to, leaving your ruts and routines behind.