Memory is ridiculously fleeting. Almost instantaneously as we arrived home, we could feel the trip slipping from something we were doing to something we had done. It’s startling how quickly the present becomes the past. So on our fourth day back in Los Angeles, before we even officially returned to our house which was still occupied by tenants, we sat down to capture our thoughts about the trip, to talk about how it changed us all, and to try and remember a little of how we felt about… everything.
Yet another amazing film.xxx
Meeting in Nairobi was awesome. I and family miss you as a great family. Look forward to some time together again.i
My goodness, Jen, your response to whether you’d go on another year said it all…
I’ve really enjoyed watching all your films! Thanks again
For sharing.
To friends I’ve never met:
Welcome home!
Thanks for sharing your remarkable adventures with all of us.
I’ve enjoyed following your trip for the last year and I’m also sorry to see it end!
If you’re ever in Pittsburgh…
Thanks again – Cant wait to see you all in person as it feels like we have been friends differently this year. Bob and I just spent two weeks in Russia and I am having difficulty getting used to being home again – staggers the mind what a year would do. Anyway, welcome back and so many thanks for the rich experiences you gave me in sharing your year!
At the risk of sounding repetitive, we too have enjoyed your travels and films more than words can express! Franny and Finn have been especially generous sharing their perspectives and allowing themselves to be filmed and I think they have inspired my own kids (Rylan and Owen) to see the world differently, to be braver, and to be more open. Thank you isn’t enough but it is a start to let you all know how much you have inspired and enriched us all!
Wherever you are, there you are. May you always be close and find adventure. Even in your backyard. Lots of love and welcome home.
I think I might actually miss vicariously traveling with you guys MORE than you’ll miss traveling! Really love this recap — so poignant and honest — thanks a million for sharing all your insights! Your next travel experiment should be traveling a year with another family — HINT HINT!
Wow. Thank you for all your films. They are so inspiring. This last one made us cry. So beautiful.
Easy to travel around the world,just looking at your videos. Thanks!
A question: Does the world seem (in any dimension) bigger or smaller after your (exciting) trip?
I’ll miss your travel log – it’s become a regular treat for me. Welcome home and I hope we’ll see you soon! xoxo
Got a little tearful and had to watch this one twice, it was so moving, thanks for sharing!
Wow.
Welcome home!
Thank you for sharing your family and your journey with all of us. Your experience has inspired our young family of four to do something similar someday, if we can!
That was a tear jerker! Your responses struck such a deep, personal cord. I hope this isn’t the last entry . . .
It was great to see the kids so much bigger and more mature. They both loved the trip and I told them that my favorite video was the work out. It was great to watch. Welcome home and happy new year.
Franny, you are beautiful, on the outside and the inside. Finn, you are wise and thoughtful well beyond your years. Jenny, you are impossibly authentic. Marky, you are my brave and brilliant friend.
A Year To Inspire.
Selfishly, I am glad to have you back and that we will be having turkey together in November; however, it is clear that this year away was absolutely wonderful for all of you. How precious, how amazing, how lucky! Welcome back. Thanks for letting all of us in on your special journey. Much appreciated…..love, Aunty Wendy
Can’t believe it’s over…At least I can maybe see you in person sometime this year! What a terrific adventure.
Thank you for sharing it.
Welcome home.
xox
Liz
It’s been such a pleasure following your adventures and “getting to know” my distant cousins in this way. I’ve loved so many of your entries–from the visit to the nomadic woman in the desert to the flood in–where was it? Amsterdam? With Mark carrying Jenny across the water to a safe place. To the balloon ride in–was it Australia? (seems SO long ago–was that the same trip?) and much much more. Most of all I loved seeing Franny and Finn being themselves in so many different worlds. Open. Interested. And beautiful.
If you’re ever up in SF and have a chance to meet some new folks, Lynn and I would love to spend a bit of time w you. We have family passes to the new Exploratorium on the Bay, which you’re welcome to use with or without us.
Well, adios for now.
Warmly,
Ruth
Lovely
“Now the man who has his heart on his sleeve, and a good whirling weathercock of a brain, who reckons his life to be dashingly used and cheerfully hazarded, makes a very different acquaintance of the world, keeps all his pulses going true and fast, and gathers impetus as he runs, until, if he be running towards anything better than wildfire, he may shoot up and become a constellation in the end.”
Robert Louis Stevenson said it.
Welcome home.
IMHO, this “segment” was perhaps the richest and most nuanced yet. I couldn’t help but think of what a challenge it is to reflect on such a significant experience as AYTT and then, in front of a camera, try to make some logical and/or emotional sense out of it—as if what is so complex and complicated, is actually an easy and natural thing to talk about. Yet, your family met the challenge. They spoke honestly and intelligently, as well as emotionally, about the “meaning” of their year together, and like the rest of the travel vignettes, they spoke to “us” as if we were all the closest of friends.
How did they do that? How did they find this authentic voice within themselves and share it with the rest of us. It is my contention that this was only possible because they were working with a great Director: their Husband and Father. He, through a lifetime of “rehearsal” had established a supportive, trusting and loving relationship with his troupe, his family of AYTT “actors”. They were bright, clever, thoughtful and entertaining throughout the entire year of production. And in one of the highlights of this vignette, Jenn shed an unexpected and personal tear, which was as emotional as it was enigmatic. Yes, she said, the togetherness would have been as joyful by half, but the opportunity to do it all again, to step back into the flowing stream of life and reach again for what might now be lost to the relentless movement of time, was something she would like to do. I was deeply moved by Jenn’s response, especially because of the way Mark asked the question: “What if I said, let’s do another lap?” He is making the offer because it is his offer to make, perhaps like a man might propose to the woman he loves, “Will you marry me?” The tear that was shed could have originated from the same source, but this time, it was even more poignant, because it was asked as if Mark were offering Jenn something even more precious, more magical, like the opportunity to experience the joy of a “second childhood” or another turn at “Life”, something which literally, has no second time around. And Jenn answers, quietly, as most of us would, “Oh….I’d like that.”
Finn also grapples with the deep meaning and mystery of “time”, saying so wisely that “each moment seemed long, like it would last forever when I was in it, but actually, when I think back, it was actually very short.” So true. Sort of like your four years of college, Finn. Count on it! And then we have Franny, sharing her own thoughts about time, when asked if she would take her children on such a trip. She says she really hasn’t thought about that future, her children and her plans for them. For her, it’s too far away in time, another universe away. For now, she’s still sorting out her healthy re-entry into “real life” — her dependence on her cell phone, the social media, the teen fashion trends. Being a Mom can wait, as it should.
However, beyond producing my fanciful interpretations, this movie created a feeling of closeness in the here and now. While I felt, as Jenn rightly expressed, as if I were with you during this year, along for the ride, this short movie of your reflections was a culmination of that connection. Each one of you disclosed your feelings, your thoughts and your ideas about the year which we shared together. Perhaps it is now my turn to speak. It was an interesting year. I saw a lot of new things and met a lot of new people. And I got to do it with a family who knows how to have fun, how to be brave, how to respect the world we all share and how to love each other deeply. I couldn’t have been in better company. It was a rare privilege.
xox,#1FANNY
Get saving folks !! I think you could talk Jen into voyage 2 !!
And if your ever in Ireland look me up !!
This latest installment, 6 plus minutes, savoring every second with a big dumb smile on my face. I suppose one should comment in some more profound way, but that’s been my natural reaction to so many of the videos … the train thru the market, the small guides, the invitation into the nomad tent, having the streets to yourselves in the rain, and so many more. I know you all have to get on with your lives now, but will there ever be a time when getting on with your lives will be as joyful and meaningful than as the travelers who have shared so much with so many?
Finally got around to this one- waaaaah. Sad, but glad I might be seeing more of you all. xx