“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” ~African Proverb

I first heard this while on the Camino de Santiago de Compostella in 2015. I didn’t really understand what it meant at the time, but I think I’m starting to get the gist of it now. If you want to go fast, it is so much easier to go alone. It’s just you. You set the pace, make the decisions, you don’t have to worry about someone else’s opinion or comfort level or the general joys or concerns of human interaction. To go farther does not necessarily mean distance, to go farther is to go deeper.

I have the privilege of having some of the best travel and adventure partners a person could ask for, but I’ve definitely gotten more than I bargained for…every time. Yes, there are moments of immeasurable joy and laughter. Moments you’re so thankful to have someone with you because otherwise you’d spend the rest of your life inadequately trying to explain the magic of a particular experience. They are your witness. They understand. But you see, if you choose to travel together, you can rest assured that shit is going to hit the fan. Maybe it’s theirs, yours, or both. Maybe it happens subtly or perhaps it’s more like an explosion. One of you might get physically injured or ill. You may behave in a completely different manner when in a new place free from former inhibitions. Your deep fears may become so overwhelming they completely halt your joint progress. You may have been pushed so far out of your comfort zone that the growing pains really hurt. Or, you may just need a little alone time. But I guaranty - someone is going to get triggered. All of that frustration and anger you’ve been pushing down? Your boundary issues, control issues, abandonment issues, lack of shame resilience and…oh yeah…the vulnerability? Forget Kundalini Yoga. All that deep crap you’ve been needing to heal and release is going to come up so quick it will shock you. Montezuma’s revenge has nothing on the emotional flushing that can be caused by travel. And that… is why you will go farther.

Travel partners are sacred. Not only because of the type of bond and trust it takes to venture into the unknown with someone, but because they are put in your life, and you in theirs, to assist healing. Travel partners are there when you summit peaks and trudge through valleys. They see you at your best, worst, spirited, exhausted and all the raw beauty in between. You are forced to hold space for each other, because only you have come this way together. It might not be easy. In fact, you’ll likely have some deep soul searching or relationship repair to do along the way or when you return home, but you will go farther because you have gone deeper. You will navigate the world more deftly, because you have navigated this experience together. And that…is why travel partners are sacred.

As I said earlier, I have been blessed with some of the best travel and adventure partners a person could ask for, but I know I have never properly expressed my gratitude to them for their resilience and sacred presence in both the amazing and difficult growth spurts that inevitably occur when traveling. Below are some of the people who deserve nothing short of sainthood. On the grandest of adventures I have seen them through their healing, and they have seen me through mine.

They are my travel partners, my adventure partners. They are sacred.

And I have traveled FARTHER because WE have traveled TOGETHER.