I hesitate to share this insight because it’s not mine.  A fellow traveler related it to me yesterday, and he in turn heard it from a French woman he’d recently met in the Caribbean.  Perhaps it was hers, or perhaps she’d received it from another.  But hearing it was one of those tectonic shifts.  The earth moves, and your perspective is forever changed.  So I have to pass it on as well. 

My friend was hanging out on a beach on Culebra Island when he met the young woman and some other international travelers.  At some point he noted how much excess stuff he had brought for his 30-day stay, that much of it had gone unused.  The woman looked at him and said, “Well, you know, when pack for a trip, what you’re packing are your fears.”

To a traveler, the truth of that simple statement is so resonant, so self-evident, there is nothing left to say.