Go somewhere I have never been before and life fizzes with possibilities. What will happen? Who will I meet? How will my life change? How will I change my life?

Is it a blessing or a curse to be curious? I’mm convinced it’s a good thing, but it doesn’t necessarily make for an easy life. I am driven by a yearning to go beyond the next horizon. The road rolls on and on. On towards a different future to the one that awaits me here. I wonder whether this is the character trait of an optimist or a pessimist? The future, the road ahead, is filled with possibility. There are more people and places in this world than we can ever imagine in a single lifetime, let alone actually experience. Yet “the flavour of the ocean is contained in a droplet.”

So am I merely dissatisfied with the present, with the ‘now’? Or am I somewhere in between? Am I an existentialist in purgatory, searing away the bad, the weak and the superfluous in the hope that I’mll find the answer in the end?

All I can do is walk on and find out if the far-off jasmine flower really does smell sweeter.
I am also drawn by the randomness of the horizon, by the requirement to react and respond to environments and situations. I am compelled into living spontaneously. Living by my wits with no idea where I will sleep that night but confident that it will all work out. And having enough positivity and humour to accept that the worst thing that will probably happen is an uncomfortable sleep.

Morning will come. The sun will rise. And I will sleep extra well tomorrow because of tonight’s travails.

This text is an extract from There Are Other Rivers, available as a giant mappazine or a free Kindle sample.