By Nechama Shemtov

I was in Sydney last week for my mother’s birthday — a beautiful celebration that brought most of our family together from around the globe.

It was a wonderful week with a great deal of reflection. The biggest lesson of the trip, however, didn’t come from the birthday — it came from an escalator in a shopping mall.

While browsing for a gift and still half in Washington mode, I walked toward the escalator and instinctively stepped to the right — the “up” side back home. Except that in Australia, the right side is down.

It took a second for my brain to catch up as the escalator began carrying me in the opposite direction from where I intended to go. I laughed, stepped off and corrected course — but the moment lingered with me.

Not because it was dramatic but because i

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