When you travel, you find yourself alone in a different way

"When you travel, you find yourself

Alone in a different way,

More attentive now

To the self you bring along.

Your more subtle eye watching

You abroad; and how what meets you

Touches that part of the heart

That lies low at home:

How you unexpectedly attune

To the timbre in some voice,

Opening in conversation

You want to take in

To where your longing

Has pressed hard enough

Inward, on some unsaid dark,

To create a crystal of insight

You could not have known

You needed

To illuminate

Your way."

–John O'Donohue, "For the Traveler" (2008)