To Pass a Good Moment

For awhile, I’ve been thinking about deleting all social media. I’ve thought about rebranding my blog for years. Sometimes, I want to disappear entirely from the digital world. (My head space has not been good; I’ve talked about this a bit.) I rarely have the energy to write about the things I love and care about these days. To the extent that I have down time, I’m not really able to unplug. And, I’ve just been overwhelmed with work and how the state of the world affects every part of it. When I couple that with the sheer amount of misinformation and disinformation on the web… I just start to spiral because I can’t believe we’re here. It’s a vicious cycle for me.

Let me digress from that though. I had conversation with Sebastian from Cave SD in Amboise. He said something to me in French, which literally translates to “I wish for you to pass a good moment here.” While in that moment, he was discussing our Loire Valley wine tasting, it stayed percolating in my brain for long after that afternoon.

I recently posted a template on instagram that included one photo from every month this year. It was a good exercise of looking back on the year. It was also a moment to retrain my brain to think about the good moments. It’s easy to lose sight of that when you’re in your head. Spending a little more time reflecting on those moments reminded me of what Sebastian said. “I wish for you to pass a good moment here.” Every single one of those photos was a good moment, and I remember thinking that when I snapped the photo. How can I carry that into feeling into my daily life? As someone who has struggled with significant and severe depression for extended periods of time throughout my life, I don’t have an easy answer for that.

A Good Moment Here

When I think about what I want to share on social media, it is grounded in the idea of what Sebastian shared with me. I wish for you to pass a good moment here. When I write about things on my blog, I want others to have the same opportunity for good moments. Whether that’s a magical hotel stay, learning something new, or having a memorable meal, I wish for good moments for everyone.

I try not to share the negative here.

There are things we do and places we stay that I don’t recommend. There are disappointing experiences, but I try to keep it in perspective. Is it objectively bad or is it just not something that I want to spend my money on? Most of the time, it’s the latter. I try to remember that travel is hard. (Good travel is even harder. You won’t change my mind. I’m going to blog about that one day.)

Some days, I’m just not in the best head space for a particular experience. Maybe my tour guide is having the worst day of their life and showing up anyway. Cultural differences get the best of us, especially as Americans. (Tom and I have a joke about how Americans are the nicest people until they break… and we also know that we break French people by forgetting to say bonjour. When you break people, you need to leave them alone and try again later, lol.) We read a lot of reviews in preparation of our trips. There are a lot of bad reviews of good people that make me sad. They aren’t always fair to the proprietor, and I think it’s important that we recognize that before we write them. If I feel like something is truly egregious, I’ll put it in private surveys or emails. I think that’s a better way to get things fixed.

Tom and I have a practice of recapping our trips at the end of each day (usually during dinner). This is something we did religiously when he started traveling. Not only did it allow us to remember our trips, but it also allowed us to reframe how we thought about our time.

It wasn’t about the train or flight being delayed or our bags being lost. It was about what we were most excited about on that day. What we learned on a tour in Budapest. Receiving an unexpected suite upgrade at the St. Regis Florence over New Year’s Eve. Finding out that there was a French cheese I liked because of Erwan at Secret Wine Door. (I eat SO many French cheeses now!) What it felt like to emerge from a train tunnel and see the sparkling Ligurian sea in Cinque Terre. The kindness of the waiter at Sacree Fleur on that cold, wet Paris evening in February and how much we’ve grown after 6 years. And, because we recap the big and the small, I never really remember the things that went wrong. (We’ve been fortunate that we’ve never had anything truly terrible happen while traveling.)

My Wish for This Space

I don’t know if I’ll rebrand my blog yet. I’ve put a lot of work into this little space. I could rename it, but I’m not sure if I want to take the hit on Google. A lot of people find people, places, and spaces that I care a lot about because of Google. I want to support those people, not hinder it in a time of AI and misinformation and disinformation. Loyalty is not transactional, and it’s becoming more difficult to find ways to articulate that.

I wish for you to use this to find your own good moments everywhere. Not all travel is for all people, and that’s okay. I like to think I’ve done well because I’ve remained completely authentic to who I am and what I’m about.

• I’m not a budget hotel girlie, despite my husband’s best attempts to convince me otherwise. I did the hostel thing in college. (Similarly, I’m not just a Rosewood / Four Seasons / St. Regis girlie because… that would severely limit the number of places I could visit!)
• I’ve learned that what grows together goes together, and I try to be open to trying new foods when I’m ready to approach them openly. My husband will study a menu for hours in advance of a meal. I’m usually content to wait until I get there to see the *actual* menu. And, I’ll always ask someone what wine they would order if they were me.
• I believe in tours, especially of cities I’ve never visited and all museums. (US textbooks didn’t cover a lot of things in great detail, and I’ve slept a lot since school.)
• I read historical fiction because I want to see humanity in history, not just memorize facts.
• My goal is to help people understand why they need to abandon the day trip and spend a few days to get a sense of place everywhere they go, both personally and economically.
• I hate stereotypes, and I wish for them to end. Some of my most magical travel moments happen in France; I want those for everyone who says anything negative about France without having actually have visited.
• I’ll never say no to a cooking class or wine tasting, and I’m trying to recreate those moments at home more frequently… because I do really wish for you to pass a good moment wherever you find yourself.

So, I guess that’s my thought for 2026. I wish for you to pass a good moment here, wherever “here” finds you. Sending everyone love, peace, and care wherever you find yourself right now.