“The joy of life is in the contrast.”

While I appreciate the time we just spent on the road, I envy an old friend who recently finished a year of traveling abroad with her family. Sophie, her partner, and daughter visited thirty-two countries across six continents. Uf-da, that’s a lot of airline miles.More incredible, she started a blog and posted every day, starting with trip preparation and ending, four hundred-plus days later, on a thoughtful reflection. I applaud her stamina for publishing details from each day with photos. Even on the days she or the family were sick, an entry was posted. That’s not easy to do normally, let alone while traveling abroad.It was fun to check in from time to time. The last entry, Reflections from our year away, is the one that stands out, where she steps back and says what the year added up to. Perspective gained from a year among so many cultures, across the planet, far from home. Let’s start with her thought on contrasts in life.The times on the trip that felt the best were when we had…