My parents were not fearless travelers. Summer road trips  intended to show my brothers and me how to 'take leaps into the bigger world' were more often displays of just how scared they were to venture into the unknown.  To them, comfort zone was more tactical than a state of mind, it was a zip code never to be ventured out of without 

a pretty solid tether. 

Our tether was strapped to the roof of our 1967 Marina Blue Malibu Station Wagon...a collection of bulging valises packed with an abundance of pieces of home brought along to cover every possible 'what if' scenario.  Within moments of checking into a motel, the safety and familiarity of  'home' would explode into our room and a sense of peace and calm would envelop us...we were safe and made it through the day.  

As I came to realize later in life, though, those comforting 'what if' provisions were the tethers that kept us from truly immersing ourselves in the experience of wherever we were.  

It turns out that, in a more profound way, they kept us from learning to trust ourselves, other people, or even the universe to provide for whatever 'what if' situation arose while 

outside of our comfort zone.  

And so from my perspective, we took roadtrips into the 

bigger world....

we never took leaps.