A Few Thoughts, Day 85 — KK
So, here it is, Day 85: Today I will sling this gray backpack over both shoulders one final time. It’s been quite a ride. As I turn the page to the next chapter I’m still taking stock of the whole experience.
I’ve tried to find time for reflection during this trip. That was a challenge with the schedule we kept. I probably have about 20 diary/blog entries I started and never finished. I think Linda does too. A few days or so ago I glanced over a few of them and it reminded me of what I was thinking during certain moments of the trip. Who knows? Maybe these fragments will be my writing prompts for another day.
There is certainly much to record for my someday pondering, including me setting a very nice hotel suite on fire, (and extinguishing it) and then getting an upgrade to a snazzier corner suite. Two fire units were called out and the entire hotel had to evacuate. That was quite the day and quite a memory.
There is the day this past weekend that I dropped my wallet, passport, credit card and most of my cash, just before stepping onto an all day cruise on the water and only realized it after we were well on our way.
Or my trip to a rural Japanese hospital. The bill and filled prescription was less than $75 USD. And I have an official Japanese health card should I be there and need medical attention again! No one there spoke English so we basically played Pictionary to communicate and it worked.
Or there is the day that I drove on the opposite side of the road for the first time and a 45 minute drive turned into three hours. Who puts eight exits in a round about? I mean you cannot even count them quickly enough to find the 7th exit. (Oy!) And yet, our experiences in England and New Zealand would have been very different if we didn’t have a car and the flexibility that provides.
Suffice it to say, I have plenty to contemplate—the funny, the scary and the ordinary moments, people along the way that smiled just when I needed it or with whom I connected for a variety of reasons.
For today, I decided to circle back to what inspired our theme.
What is it about the light that keeps us searching, allured and mesmerized?
We aptly named our trip Chasing the Sun World Tour. If you saw our earliest photos, you may have noticed that the first few countries we visited were consistently drenched with rain which seemed apropos considering some of our reasons for taking the trip. I’ve already written about some of my personal darkness leading up to the trip. But as I look back it feels like the rain washed away some sorrows so that the light would be even brighter as it was revealed. Equally apropos, as the trip continued, the sun began to shine everywhere we went, literally. The light we sought, the light for which we were both hungry, definitely shined brightly. For that I’m thankful and this week is an especially poignant time to be just that.
It’s no accident that we will arrive home for Thanksgiving, one of my favorite weeks of the year.
My list is long but here are a few of the things that really stood out for me and for which I am especially grateful today:
1. My family really pulled through for me to have the time and space to take this trip. They kept life at home moving along, amidst some great personal challenges that arose for them very shortly after my departure. Many friends did the same and encouraged me as the trip progressed. An added bonus is that I reconnected with old friends through social media. I had no idea they were following the trip. Even when much time elapses between contact, true friends remain. I am grateful for my family and friends.
2. Quiet time is necessary. Spending every hour “blowing and going” is a way to avoid thinking about things you probably ought to consider and self-examination is chief among them. I am grateful for the quiet moments.
3. It is never too late to tweak your plans or abandon them altogether and start anew. I guess I am somewhere in the middle of those two things! I am grateful I have choices.
I hope I always have an eager spirit to search for light and...today that light leads me home. I’m lucky I know, and I want to go home.
Another aeroplane. Another sunny place. I'm lucky I know. But I wanna go home
“Home” Michael Bublé