Waiting. Istanbul. photo by: Katie Hellerman

Did you know that birds don’t just make noise to make noise? Did you know that you can predict when a hawk is in the vicinity several minutes before you see it? Did you know that there is a way to tell the gender and age of deer from only looking at its footprints?

I’ll never forget the first time I went on a walk with a professional animal tracker. Until that point, I’d considered myself pretty “outdoorsy.” I could identify plants, camp, build a fire, and wasn’t fazed by mud or bugs. My first walk only covered the piece about what is called “bird language.” But even that was enough to leave me flabbergasted. Never again could I enjoy bird sounds. I am now constantly wondering what’s prompting the ruckus. How was it that I had previously lived and supposedly deeply interacted in this world and not been aware of what was really going on?

One of the things that both scares and exhilarates me about life and travel are those moments, like mine on that walk through the woods, when a veil is suddenly lifted and you realize that you’ve only been seeing a small piece of what is really going on. It is this tension of never knowing how clearly you are seeing the picture that motivates me to be continuously curious about cultures and worlds other than my own. It also makes me more understanding of those perspectives that differ mine. Because, in the end, how can I truly know which one of us is standing on the “enlightened” side of things?