Further exploring the theme of wandergrief here, this time from Bhutan. I’m now looking back, sieving through, rummaging among my memories of past travels where I felt wandergrief. This was not the first time I’d been down this road. 

What lessons from the past can I take comfort in? What hangover cures might there be?

This time, it is from my work trips to Bhutan, coaching civil servants how to use design thinking in the formulation and delivery of public services. Each trip lasted a week, and I returned 5 times. 

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Over 5 trips, though it had been for work, Bhutan had slowly and unknowingly crept into that special place in my heart. It had been hard to leave such a beautiful country with such beautiful people. One day over dinner there, we were talking about what makes Bhutan and the Bhutanese so special. I said, everyone is drawn to purity and goodness - these are universal qualities that anyone from anywhere will be drawn to. And indeed, Bhutan and its people had drawn me in. 

On the last day in Bhutan, I desperately sought some closure, trying to reflect and make sense of the lessons I learnt here. I told a friend that closure is feeling happy to have stayed yet happy to be leaving. But closure wasn’t forthcoming, until I saw Everest on the flight out. Needing closure was an assumption. Perhaps Bhutan will remain unfinished business, and a lingering inspiration. Of a beacon of purity and goodness. 

Perhaps, closure will come another day when I return, Bhutan.