June 2026 — Lisbon

Lisbon in June is loud and warm and full of other people’s plans. I stayed longer than I meant to, which is usually the sign of a good month.

The thinking

I spent most of June trying to work out why I keep moving. The honest answer is that arriving somewhere new resets the part of me that gets bored, and the reset lasts about five weeks. Both conversations this month were with people who solved that differently — Yelena by building something that would still be there in ten years, Kristen by making the work itself the thing that changes.

I have not solved it. But I have stopped pretending the restlessness is a plan.