My family has two central themes that I discovered in the exploration of my genogram: adventure and togetherness. I took a look at these themes in my genogram presentation but wanted to expound upon them a little bit within my own nuclear family, with a focus on self identity.

Sometimes these two themes might work in contrast with one another – for example, the desire for exploration and yearning to stay close to home. Or perhaps wanting to explore new careers or places, while other members hold to traditional values and places. When turbulence hits the family, there are two contrasting options – to buckle down in the family, or to flee individually. To flee would be to lean into this new sense of adventure, while buckling down as a unit would fall into togetherness.

Yet adventure and togetherness can work in beautiful tandem when they are combined within the family unit.

And my family combined these things when I was 8 years old – we packed up, rented out our house, my Dad took a sabbatical, and we hit the road. We homeschooled and traveled for 365 days – just us. Besides grandparents meeting us along the way, it was only us – no one we knew, only us.

We went to 29 countries, took 45 flights, and only almost died a couple of times.

And as we walked through this unknown, exploring this adventure, the experiences we went through drew us together. Our adventure drew us to community and togetherness with one another. And I see this in my own heart – it’s bursting at the seams to run, to fly – but I want to do it with those closest to my soul.

GOD, brilliant Lord, Your name echoes around the world! ~psalm 8:9 (The Message)

We fly to Tennessee tomorrow.

I once performed Mozart’s “Laudaute Dominum” in Salzburg Cathedral with about a dozen high school classmates.

Mozart wrote that piece of music for the cathedral’s archbishop in the 1780s. It was to be part of evening vesper services. For us, it was a normal day in one of Salzburg’s many must-see destinations — groups of tourists bounded past our a capella performance in the nave on their way to visit the cathedral’s high altar.

I didn’t know it then … but that moment was the culmination of everything I’d learned up to that point about DYNAMICS in art — forte, piano, emphasis, subtlety, crescendo, focus, JOY, matching your voice tone with the voices around you, enunciating the Latin words, feeling the weight of history, feeling the elegant music bounce around the great church ….

Years later, this is the view from Sunset Beach in Oahu. This stretch of coastline is part one of the most revered places on earth among surfers looking for near-perfect breaks day after day after day. We are staying in a rental home a few blocks away — H and E can see the same surf from their loft window.

We are not surfers — but we came to this place to surf. Twice in the last three days, I have ventured out in to the blue with a body board or fins or just to swim … and twice I have turned back after getting caught between waves that were too big, too angry, and too confusing to conquer like we do back home. (Once entering the water with one of my boys, we were the targets of a beach-wide public address announcement from the lifeguard station calling “that man and his son” back out of the water because of too-strong currents.)

There have been better times in tamer waters for all of us … but the failed attempts brought REAL FEAR. Capital F Fear. I felt inadequate. I felt small, dwarfed by something bigger, better, stronger. I had come to touch the beauty and the glory and the power of this special ocean cathedral … but it seemed unreachable.

So today we faced that fear. Add Uncle Bryan’s Surf Academy to our recommendations list – we went out this morning along the same coastline and ALL of us got up on surfboards. Many times. Some of us looked so good, it was as if we were naturals.

We were taught some nuts and bolts about where to position your body on the board, how to stand up, and so on — but today’s surfing pointers were the same dynamic tools I’d enjoyed many years earlier in Salzburg Cathedral: feel it, go with it. Lean in to the power. Ride the strength. PARTICIPATE in the Glory.

Fear was part of both experiences, too. Will I forget a note to sing? Will that oncoming wave keep me under? “This is bigger than me.”

But what happens once the first note is sung or the first wave is crested? Forte. Piano. Lean. Let go. Crescendo. Focus. JOY.

I used to think of myself as a pretty hospitable person. But that was before I met the Samuels… and the Stonemans… and the Carlsons… and the Bultemas….. and the Chaveses… and the Pughs… and the Eubanks… The list of guest presenters in my Hospitality 102 class this year is long.

I know I have written about it before, but the level of generosity and hospitality extended to us throughout this year is staggering and humbling, and it has taught me that I have so very much to learn. In studying for my take-home exam, I’m a little overwhelmed.

Here are a few nuggets from the syllabus this year:

• Talk to strangers.
• Invite strangers to dinner.
• Share holidays and Holydays.
• What you have is Enough To Share.
• A friend-of-a-friend is a Friend, even if you’ve only talked over email.
• Invite guests to just “do life” with you.
• Accept help from your guests (it’s even ok to ask!).
• Reach out to people in different life stages.
• A welcome note makes people feel especially loved.
• Don’t feel like the house must be perfect.
• You don’t have to constantly entertain your guests.
• Eat together.
• Play games together.
• Pray together.
• Tell family stories.
• Be spontaneous.
• Ask big questions, and listen to the answers.
• Offer your home even if you won’t be there.
• Thanksgiving Dinner with 24 hours notice is not as impossible as it sounds.

We Wildpeople 5 do not land lightly. Our family footprint is not small, no matter how big the house or how close the friends, which just elevates the status of the folks below even more to Generosity Giants.

For example, we were invited to spend the entire week of Christmas with the Bultema family in Turkey. They had never met us — we are friends with her brother in Virginia. Pastoring a church, hosting church family events and running a community cafe, Christmas is their busiest time of year– who would possibly consider taking in a sight-unseen family of five on top of that crazy schedule? Yet in advance of our boisterous arrival, the closing line of her email was “Our home is open to you.” Ridiculous, right?

Here are some of the giving folks who opened their homes to us throughout this year. They fed us, clothed us, housed us, laughed and cried with us, celebrated birthdays and holidays and lost teeth with us.

Blessings, every one.

(clicking on any photo will launch a larger gallery)

My view this morning from a park bench in Seoul’s Sajik Park. As early walkers looped past me every so often, I considered my last morning on foreign soil.

Tomorrow, we wake up in Hawaii.

Today, on a bench — I read in the Old Testament about something the Israelites did after arriving in the land they’d been promised. They offered up the first, best parts of their new harvest … they recited together all the ways they’d been rescued by a Holy Hand … they bowed their heads in worship … and they celebrated.

It was the end of a journey and they marked the moment in a special way.

It was a moment to remember and re-tell their Story. Then, looking ahead … they claimed the same Rescue, the same Story, in the days to come.

Our round-the-world journey is ending, of course — and we’re so thankful for how we’ve been rescued and cared for and helped and guided and protected and blessed along the way. There is such fruit from this journey to be harvested.

I’m also thankful for the journey RIGHT NOW — for that couple walking past my park bench, for that woman’s radio in her back pocket blaring “Call Me Maybe,” for that man who walks past while shaving with an electric razor, for that pigeon resting in the dust of an empty clearing in the park. This is fruit for me, too.

My translation of the Old Testament passage that I read this morning in Seoul includes these CLOSING words for the Israelites to say together:

“So here I am. I’ve brought the firstfruits of what I’ve grown on this ground you gave me, O God.”

Those are my words now … as one journey ends … some journeys continue … and other journeys are yet to come. I claim Rescue and Story yesterday, today, and tomorrow. I mark these things.

So here we are.

While planning for our year, both in advance and on-the-go, TripAdvisor became our sixth family member. We poured over reviews and suggestions of restaurants, apartments, hikes, hotels, trains, and self-guided tours. As a school writing assignment, we even studied what makes a good review and published some of our own.

Because it was so useful to hear from those who have gone before, we want to share some of our recommendations for YOUR trips abroad. This is by no means an exhaustive list, just many of the great things that come to mind when we look back on our year.

Sorry there are no helpful comments here, but we wholeheartedly recommend all of these places and activities linked below (we DID have some disasters and some less-than-ideals, we just left them off the list). If you want the full story, feel free to email us and we will talk your ear off!

GENERAL TRAVEL

AirTreks Round-the-World Airfare

Renault Eurodrive Lease/Buyback Program

TripAdvisor

TripAdvisor CityGuides App

HomeAway Rentals

Holiday Lettings Rentals

AirBnB Apartment Rentals

Rick Steves Audio Europe

ICELAND

Iceland Camping Card

Hotel Keilir, Keflavik

Northsailing Whale Watching, Husavik

FRANCE

Hotel Esmeralda, Paris

Le Manoir Quinquis, Bannalec

Cro Bique, rental in Beynac-et-Cazenac

Font-de-Gaume Cave Paintings, Les Eyzies

Beynac Castle, Beynac-et-Cazenac

Transmanche Ferries

ENGLAND

Broadhembury Campground, Kent

Dover Castle, Kent

Farriers Arms Pub, Kent

London Eye

Tower of London

Blenheim Palace, Oxford

Helm Lune Cottage Rental, Bowness

Holiday Inn Maidstone, Seven Oaks

Car train through the Chunnel

BELGIUM

Maison Antoine Frites, Brussels

European Union Visitors Centre

SWITZERLAND

Chalet Im Batzenboden, Wengen

Trummelbach Falls, Lauterbrunnen

CROATIA

Montona Gallery Pizza, Motovun

Perfectly Charming House, Viganj

Antony Boy Camping and Windsurfing, Viganj

Jadrolinja Ferries

ITALY

L’Arcobaleno Apartment, Rome

Il Sorpasso Ristorante, Rome

MOROCCO

Riad Safir, Meknes

Rough Tours Company, Sahara

TUNISIA

Novotel, Tunis

GREECE

Hotel Phaedra

TURKEY

Villa Blanca Rental, Davutlar

Ephesus Archaeological Site, Izmir

Perge Archaeological Site, Antalya

Flintstones Cave Hotel, Cappadocia

Red and Rose Valley Trails, Goreme

Sedef Restaurant, Goreme

Hitchhiker ATV Rental, Goreme

Sahkulu Place Apartment, Istanbul

TANZANIA

Nomad Tanzania Safaris

RWANDA

Solace Guesthouse, Kigali

Kigali Memorial Centre, Kigali

Meze Fresh Burritos, Kigali

MALAYSIA

Petrosains Science Museum, Kuala Lumpur

Novotel City Centre, Kuala Lumpur

THAILAND

Thailand Elephant Conservation Center

Sojos Cafe, Chiang Mai

Khaomao Khaofang Restaurant, Chiang Mai

Free Burma Rangers

Medici Restaurant, Bangkok

Navalai River Resort, Bangkok

Bumrungrad Hospital, Bangkok

VIETNAM

V’Spirit Cruise, Ha Long Bay

Hanoi Charming 2 Hotel, Hanoi

CHINA

New Day Foster Home Guesthouse, near Beijing

Huanghua Great Wall of China

Olympic Water Cube Water Park, Beijing

Xian HQ Apartments, Xian

Mt Huashan Hike, Xian

Terra Cotta Warriors, Xian

JAPAN

Japan Railpass

Sakara Kyoto Guesthouse, Kyoto

Sakara Gion Machiya Rental, Kyoto

Musashi Sushi, Kyoto

Hiroshima Memorial Park, Hiroshima

Andersen Kitchen, Hiroshima

Toyota Plant Tour, Toyota City

Pepper Lunch, Tokyo

KOREA

Cozy Residence Apartment, Seoul

… AND SOME ORGANIZATIONS WE HAVE GROWN TO LOVE

St. James Muswell Hill, London

Friends of the Lakes District, Kendal, UK

Lakes Christian Centre, Bowness, UK

St. Paul’s Cultural Center, Antalya, Turkey

World Relief Rwanda

Sonrise School, Musanze, Rwanda

Akiba School, Nairobi, Kenya

Light and Power Centre, Nairobi, Kenya

The Ocean Church, Tanzania

Kenya Connection, Kenya

Dave and Lucy Chaves, Nairobi, Kenya

Christ Church Westlands, Nairobi, Kenya

International Justice Mission Thailand, Chiang Mai, Thailand

Grace International School, Chiang Mai, Thailand

Free Burma Rangers, Chiang Mai, Thailand

New Day Foster Home, China

HAPPY ADVENTURES TO YOU ALL!

“Writing writing prompts”???? Sheesh, I sure am glad J is teaching them writing instead of me!

W is practicing for his Algebra End-of-Course exam in a park in Seoul. H and E are back at the apartment with J working on writing writing prompts.
Tomorrow is our last day of school!

The perfect place for a date excursion here in Seoul later this week: I plan on cake and wine, he plans on bread and cheese. Happy together!

Big mystery from today in Takayama, Japan:

At 1:30 in the afternoon, we heard music played on — it seemed — a loudspeaker mounted on every other lamp post in the city’s wide valley. Then … a voice began saying something.

Echoes from that voice bounced from loudspeaker to loudspeaker, valley hillside to valley hillside.

Here is a brief clip from the episode, recorded from the hilltop ruins of an ancient castle overlooking the town: