It was a little earlier than early morning on a beautiful Italian day. If I was anywhere else, I'd be fast asleep. But I wasn't anywhere else. I was right where I should be: on an otherworldly quiet train, lights dim, countryside to my left, possibilities surrounding me.
The only sound interrupting my peaceful noiselessness was the vibration of my headphones in my ears. Through them, I heard the all too familiar words of my favorite musical travel companion, only this time they seemed to take on an all new meaning. "You better get some sleep, we'll be driving through a dream," my earbuds promised me. If I didn't believe it before, the hazey mountain vistas surrounding me begged to differ. I really was driving through a dream, and even though every bone in my body told me that I needed to go to sleep, I knew that I never wanted to wake up.
Lately, I've become all too familiar with the stresses of travel. From planning to packing, I know how hard it can be to get where you need to go sometimes. What I didn't realize though, until maybe that exact moment, is that the destination doesn't have to be the only reward. Tired, cranky and a little out of place, I was as happy as I remember being on that early morning train. Perfect moments, it seems, don't require any sort of grand scale agenda. If it hits you just right, you can be anywhere,at any time, and everything can suddenly fall into place. The only thing you have to do is recognize the moment when it's there, and try like hell to never let it go.
Because perfection, really true perfection, is far from unobtainable. You just have to recognize that there are different forms of "perfect," none more important that the others. When your perfect hits, you might be more bags under your eyes than you are human. But maybe you're listening to your favorite music, and maybe it sounds more right than it ever has before. And then maybe, just maybe, you'll be hit with the kind of happiness that makes you want to drop to your knees and cry. Whatever your own moment happens to be, I can only hope that you find it, and that when it comes, you discover something totally new. Sleepy eyes can be refreshed, but the dream will last forever.
