Written piece
The Pull of the Thread
Kanchana Perera
Sri Lanka
About this piece
We are all made of the same bones. In a world fractured by war and hardened by borders, travel strips away our differences until only the familiar yearning to be loved, understood, and seen remains. This is hoping we all choose to see our shared humanity.
I do not travel to collect stamps on my passport,
but I feel the tug of an invisible thread at my heart
one that sometimes pulls taut,
drawing me to places that feel like unfinished business,
leading me to destinations I did not know I needed
until I arrived.
The box society asked me to fit into is not evil.
It is simply too small.
too small to contain the electric thrill of tasting something once strange,
of breathing the crisp air of an unfamiliar plain,
of being struck breathless by how wondrous
the world truly is.
Travel reveals a profound paradox:
in all our magnificent diversity of culture, custom, and belief,
we uncover the same enduring human desires.
To be loved, to be respected, to be understood.
We all carry stories about ourselves and our people.
They may wear distinct clothing,
but they spring from the same deep need
for meaning, belonging, and purpose.
Each journey has become an act of liberation,
loosening the grip of a single narrow perspective,
freeing us from the tyranny of "should”,
from the fear that different means wrong.
This is why I travel: not to escape life,
but to inhabit it more fully.
I do not reject where I come from.
But I no longer believe in the permanence of borders.
And once you have tasted that freedom,
once you have learned to honour both your roots
and your wings,
there is no going back.
Each journey is not a string of separate beads,
but moments of meaning, that when connected,
form a constellation of becoming.
Each journey whispers into the next,
each experience tugs the thread a little further
unravelling you,
even as it makes you whole.