When you can accept that things are 'different than usual,' the journey begins

When you go on a trip,
things often don't go as planned.

Like a train being delayed,
a shop you intended to visit being closed, or the weather being slightly different than expected.

Before, when such discrepancies occurred,
I would feel like I had 'failed'
or that 'it wasn't what I had in mind.'

But as I traveled more,
that feeling gradually began to change.

'Oh, something a little different is happening right now.'
Just by noticing that,
there are moments when, for some reason, I feel more at ease.

When traveling,
you don't have to try to control everything.
In fact,
it's often the time spent off-schedule
that I remember most fondly later on.

Like the scenery I found after getting lost, or the comfort of a shop I wandered into by chance.

Since I started noticing that,
I stopped forcing myself to 'try to be relaxed.'

Relaxation isn't something you create by trying to create it,
but rather,
I think it's something that remains
as a result of simply accepting that things are 'different than usual.'

Lately,
I've been looking for that same feeling in my daily life, even when I'm not traveling.

Walking a different route than usual,
or shifting my schedule a little.
Just by doing that,
the day feels a little bit more like a journey.

Perhaps a journey
isn't about going somewhere far away,
but starts from not making the same decisions as always.

'Well, this is fine too.'
The moment I can think that,
I feel like the journey has already begun.