TEMPE, AUSTRALIA — “No. Nope, no. No. Sorry about that.” No penguins for you!

It was the information booth at Manly, and I’d asked if there was any way to see the Little Penguins that breed along the shoreline. She wouldn’t divulge any information.

Now, don’t get me wrong — I’m all for protecting threatened wildlife, and that was probably her job. But the woman’s refusal even to discuss the issue with me communicated one message loud and clear: You are an outsider, and outsiders don’t belong.

As if I needed a reminder.

I try not to spill much angst in this blog, but it’s been building up. However glamorous my globetrotting lifestyle may sound (and may, in fact, be), it leaves me a perpetual outsider — a visitor who doesn’t belong and doesn’t get to stay.

I am skipping over the world like a stone skips across the surface of a river.

Every time I touch down, something amazing is waiting for me. I didn’t get to see any penguins, but I watched Black-browed Albatrosses and Australasian Gannets soaring over a magnificent sea. Spectacular — the stuff of poetry and dreams.

But then the water molecules send me spinning back up into space, not sure whether to look forward or backward, wishing I could stay but curious about that next bounce too.

So to all of you who treat me like a friend or even family — or would if you ever had a chance — thank you. And don’t worry about me; I’ll probably feel better in the morning. But in the morning, I’m changing continents again.

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