A Mirror Far Away

Few things blow my mind like the view from an airplane. Even though I've been on dozens of flights, I always have to be near a window so I can take it all in.

When flying over big cities, it's crazy to imagine the millions of people in view. The world is huge; each of us is a very small piece of it. It's both awesome and terrifying. Yet, despite all the reflection I did abroad in Europe this last month, I find myself suddenly back at home living the same life I did before, unchanged.

Hence, I wrote the below poem yesterday. I wonder how much I should change and grow each time I travel. How much what I see, hear, and experience should make a permanent change within me. Or if it's okay to come home and just be me again like I was hardly gone at all.

A Mirror Far Away

Worlds away I saw a sun that set on me before,

in a strange and distant place where somehow it meant more;

above in planes and high in hills I pondered things profound

to meditate in spring's soft winds and let its peace resound

Yet coming home I was not troubled, nor did I give pause

to what it meant to travel there, or if I should have cause

to think of those I came across and do more than pretend

to see within myself a crack that they could help me mend

For is this not the curse of learning: to learn is to know

that we, imperfect, ever need to tweak the way we go

that in the lives of distant souls, a mirror we can find