03/05/2026
On a recent trip, I had a lot of time to think about why I travel.
On the surface, I thought I loved the movement of it. The pre-trip organizing, the packing, the thrill of landing somewhere that smells and sounds different from home. And that’s true. I do love discovering a great baked good (Hi Pasteis!), revisiting a favorite restaurant (Hi Zuni!), and seeing things I have never seen before (Hi little echidna!).
But that’s not the real reason I go.
I go to be with friends. Sitting across from them at their kitchen table for hours feels like reclaiming something essential. Discovering places together is such a bond.
I go because my sister and her family are in Australia, and being woven into their everyday life (the schools, the grocery stores, the favorite fish & chip place), the ordinary magic of it all, is worth every hour in the air.
I go for my aunt’s 85th birthday, for our baby cousin’s wedding, for Christmas Day, for girls’ weekend, because being there in person, with all these people who I love and don’t see enough, fills my tank.
Travel, for me, isn’t about escape. It’s about return.
It’s about remembering who I am in the presence of people who have known me for a long time. It’s about showing up to mark the milestones that stitch a life together. It’s about choosing to gather, even when it’s inconvenient, even when it’s far.
There’s something clarifying about leaving home to be with the people you love. You drop your usual distractions. You pay attention. You linger at the table. You listen more closely. You make space.
I’ve realized that what I’m really chasing isn’t a destination. It’s connection.
And in many ways, that’s what we’re doing here, too. Urban Pharm has always been about more than shrub. It’s about what happens around it. The dinners, the celebrations, the everyday moments that are made a little brighter. It’s about creating reasons to gather and little rituals that bring us back to one another.
So yes, I will keep taking the risk of being stuck at the airport for two days (or was it three?). Because it is always worth it.
With love,
Anne
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