Vagabonding

U.S. State Department Travel Registration (step.​state.

prosaic and practical as this process sounds, it is actually in keeping with time-honored spiritual traditions. Jesus, after all, taught that it’s pointless to look to otherworldly realms for revelation, because “the kingdom of God is within you.” The Buddha expressed enlightenment not as a mystical firestorm but as the disassembling of the conditi

“I have in my mind that seemingly wealthy, but most terribly impoverished class of all,” he wrote in Walden, “who have accumulated dross, but know not how to use it, or get rid of it, and thus have forged their own golden or silver fetters.”

If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. He will put some things behind, will pass an invisible boundary; new, universal, and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him. —HENRY DAVID THOREA

Interestingly, one of the initial impediments to open-mindedness is not ignorance but ideology. This is especially true in America, where (particularly in “progressive” circles) we have politicized open-mindedness to the point that it isn’t so open-minded

Scope eludes my grasp, there is no finality of vision, …tomorrow a new walk is a new walk. —A. R. AMMONS, “CORSONS INLET”

the ongoing practice of looking and learning, of facing fears and altering habits, of cultivating a new fascination with people and places.

On a basic level, there are three general methods to simplifying your life: stopping expansion, reining in your routine, and reducing clutter.

Keeping this in mind, don’t worry that your extended travels might leave you with a “gap” on your résumé. Rather, you should enthusiastically and unapologetically include your vagabonding experience on your résumé when you return. List the job skills travel has taught you: independence, flexibility, negotiation, planning, boldness, self-sufficiency