Pessac, France (September 13, 2025)

One of the questions I am frequently asked is, “How do you do it? Specifically, how do you maintain all your energy as you travel around the world for an entire year?” The key is having a “chill day” every 7 to 10 days no matter what. You plan the downtime into the regular routine so that you always know it’s coming. This chill day means nothing is planned and there’s no need to “do” anything at all. Just be. Glorious, isn’t it?

For Violet, that means sleeping in until 10 or 11am, drawing in her sketchbook, playing video games and catching up with friends. This feels very much like any given Saturday and we just happen to be in Pessac, France while it’s happening.

Incredible Palestinian food, friends and family — the perfect recharge for me

My body doesn’t allow me to sleep much past 6am, so my routine looks a bit different. I woke up, meditated for a good 30 minutes and was inspired to catch up on my blog. After writing for a few hours (it felt really good to share where I’ve been and what I’ve been up to), Sally’s daughter Twia (pronounced “Tia”) went off a friend’s birthday party along with her father. That left Sally and I to sit at her kitchen table and deeply connect.

I love this. What recharges my batteries is strengthening my love and connection bonds with my friends. During the time that I was working on my blog, Sally was inspired to cook and prepared a middle eastern feast that featured everything from baba ganoush and hummus to falafel with four different types of incredible breads, fruits, different types of cheeses, meats, fish, and vegetables. Unbelievable. When I emerged from my writing, it was as if I had walked into the reception of a wedding. The spread was incredible.

And there we deepened our love and connection for each other for hours. She educated me on her incredible parents who are both doctors living in Palestine. Because of their humanitarian work with the Red Cross, they have the ability to leave and relocate to France as residents, and yet they stay despite the risk to both of their lives.

As you can imagine, this is so hard for Sally and she is deeply conflicted. On the one hand, she deeply admires the sacrifice each of her parents are making by staying in Palestine despite the ongoing genocide happening all around them. They could be killed at any moment and yet they risk their lives, as doctors, to support the critical needs of this community. Were it anyone other than her parents, she would simply be proud and admire them for what they are doing.

And yet, they are her parents. Just like any parent wants their child to be safe, every child wants their parents to live a long and happy life — especially at their age of retirement. Sally and her siblings have enough financial means to support their parents to live anywhere they’d like in Europe, but that’s not what their parents want. Their parents wish to be part of the solution that is so badly needed right now.

Wow. My heart, empathy and compassion grew and grew the longer we talked. What an incredible story of purpose-driven sacrifice. I could put myself in each person’s perspective. The need for each parent to be of service to their community despite the risk and the cost to themselves and their families. The deep desire from Sally and her siblings for their parents to make a different choice and be safe; to live out a long and fruitful existence and enjoy their lives.

And in all of this, I am truly grateful.

My gratitude grew 10x this day. First, I’m grateful to have such a powerful friend like Sally who trusts me enough to open up to me like this; to share deeply of herself and what she’s going through in this time in her life. I’m grateful that my parents are safe and living out their lives exactly as they wish. I’m grateful that my in-laws (at 92 and 93) are not only alive, but thriving and showing me what life can be like in my 90s should I be so lucky to live that long. I’m grateful to be here with my daughter, Violet, who came in and out of these conversations like a butterfly sprinkling her own love and wisdom into our conversations before fluttering back to her room and enjoying her day. I’m grateful for my son Will who is finding his way in college and doing so well. And I’m deeply grateful for my wife Elena who I will be seeing in just a few weeks time.

And just when I think my heart can’t get any fuller, my friend Jeff Burdett sent Elena and I a link to his handheld VHS recording of our wedding day. He had seen my post on September 3rd sharing that Elena and I had just celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary and remembered he took this video. I don’t remember seeing it, so it was wild to jump back 25 years to see our wedding from his unique (and funny) perspective:

Life is truly amazing and it’s the impermanence of life that makes it so magical. Today is a gift and tomorrow is not guaranteed for any of us. When I live my life this way, I’m fully present to all of life’s gifts and the deep love and connection that is all around me. And yes, when Twia got back from her friend’s birthday party, we did practice the universal language of play together:

Twia playing with this very cool tree house with animal friends set

After awhile, Violet and the house cat joined us so that we were all playing together. I even tried Google Translate and learned that a few weeks ago Google launched a real-time AI-driven spoken word version that’s a bit like a babble fish from the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. I’m still working on it as I think it works better with “intentional” communication. Sometimes when kids are playing the sounds are soft and almost to themselves and the app has a bit of a challenge picking up what’s being said. But it’s something and a lifeline as Violet and I travel into parts of the world where English is less and less prevalent.

Violet toggling between Twia and the cat walking by for a quick pet

Okay, so that I can wrap up this post, Sally had me pose for one final picture to really cement the amount of pleasure eating I had this day. After our deep conversations, the food was most certainly my second favorite part of the day and her cooking is some of the best I’ve had on this trip so far. I’ve been blessed to have so many incredible people willing to cook for us throughout this trip. I’m really fortunate to have so many “homes away from home.” And my happy face about to enjoy such a fabulous meal looks something like this:

Okay, I admit it, that’s trying too hard, but you get the idea … let’s go eat!

I think I’m morphing my World Tour into “Somebody Feed Bill (and Violet)!” Eating my way around the world is truly one of life’s great pleasures. Thank you for joining me on this incredible journey. I appreciate you and your interest.