If I Could Fly: Seeking Stillness in Movement
It’s 1:04pm, and the August sun is hitting my laptop screen at just the right angle that I must squint to see what I write. The bus rattles and sways on the two-lane Vermont highway.
Writing archive
Essays & Travelogue
New writing lives on Substack — essays, notes, and the conversations I’m having now. This page is the Vagabondess Blog Archive: articles published August 2012 through March 2024.
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Continue Reading: If I Could Fly: Seeking Stillness in Movement
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As Long As You’re Moving, You’re On Your Path.
Continue Reading: As Long As You’re Moving, You’re On Your Path.In this moment of deep transition, a few brief thoughts on “following our path,” and what that really means. A well-intentioned friend recently cautioned me about falling too far from my path as I meander, in my peculiar way, through experience and discovery.
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What to Do with a 10-Hour Train Ride
Continue Reading: What to Do with a 10-Hour Train RideThat thing where I look at plane tickets, look at train tickets, enter all available data into an elaborate equation (something like, Value = Adventure / Cost + Adventure x Time + Cost/Environmental Cost) and decide to take the ten-hour train.
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How to Go Out Alone (& Not Hate It)
Continue Reading: How to Go Out Alone (& Not Hate It)I’ve just gotten off the metro somewhere in the center of the city. The text messages, which don’t yet reach underground, arrive in a flurry. My first instinct is to flee right back the way I came.
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“Won’t You Stay?” A Short Story about Leaving.
Continue Reading: “Won’t You Stay?” A Short Story about Leaving.A bird came to rest on a branch outside my window one day. It sang such a beautiful tune, I nearly cried. “Won’t you stay?” I asked the little bird.
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In Defense of Aimless Wandering, Revisited
Continue Reading: In Defense of Aimless Wandering, RevisitedI’m riding from Sweden to Finland on a ferry named Grace, pondering over aimless wandering. She has a club room and a casino, cafes and restaurants, cocktail bars and a dog toilet.
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“Smile As You’re Dancing.” Thoughts for Those Seeking to Rewild
Continue Reading: “Smile As You’re Dancing.” Thoughts for Those Seeking to Rewild“Smile As You’re Dancing.” Thoughts for Those Seeking to Rewild — an essay from Toby’s on-site writing archive, written before new work moved to Substack.
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The Wild Song and Where to Find It
Continue Reading: The Wild Song and Where to Find ItThe Wild Song and Where to Find It — an essay from Toby’s on-site writing archive, written before new work moved to Substack.
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7 Hardcore Life Lessons Travel Teaches Faster
Continue Reading: 7 Hardcore Life Lessons Travel Teaches FasterThere are no bathroom breaks, no question and answer sessions, and no weeks off for study or review. We learn on the fly, or we fall on our face. Or, we fall, and then we learn to fly.
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Struggle: A Travel Manifesto
Continue Reading: Struggle: A Travel ManifestoIf you travel (or live), where the mother tongue is not your mother tongue, you will struggle. The mundane will become complex and challenging, and you will no longer take your habitual fluency in the everyday for granted.
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Some Stuff I Liked in Portugal: A Rough and Tumble Guide
Continue Reading: Some Stuff I Liked in Portugal: A Rough and Tumble GuidePortugal has made it onto just about every top travel list this year, and with good reason. I loved the month I spent there in every way, and I want to share some of the goodness with you.
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Give Me Loneliness (a poem for travelers and dreamers)
Continue Reading: Give Me Loneliness (a poem for travelers and dreamers)Give Me Loneliness (a poem for travelers and dreamers) — an essay from Toby’s on-site writing archive, written before new work moved to Substack.
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The Girl Who was Afraid of Everything—Fiction
Continue Reading: The Girl Who was Afraid of Everything—Fiction(A break from the usual—story time!) *** Once there was a girl who was afraid of everything. She lived on a tropical island of fearsome forests surrounded by cavernous seas. All the other islanders lived for adventure, it seemed, but not her.
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When You Don’t Want to be Friendly and Open and Curious
Continue Reading: When You Don’t Want to be Friendly and Open and CuriousI stare resolutely out the window of my Uber at the windy Cape Town day, quite determined to see that any attempts at conversation die a quick death.
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The Rough and Wrinkled Side of Adventure
Continue Reading: The Rough and Wrinkled Side of AdventureIt’s kind-hearted French tourists warning you that you’re being followed (you know already) and offering to accompany you wherever you need to go (you’re touched). It’s hastily scribbled hitchhiking signs, crumpled and smoothed out again. It’s sloppy smiley faces in the O’s of Oporto.
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