June 28, 2023

This is another in a series of regular Blogs dedicated to my wife Cynthia. She lived life with much sparkle and zest, and taught me a great deal.

Travelling

“Don’t tell me how educated you are.
Tell me how much you have travelled”
-Mohammed

“ To travel is to live”
- Hans Christian Andersen

I’m just over half-way through my first travel vacation on my own without Cynthia. It’s a whole new learning curve for me, with painful and triggering moments nearly every day. But it’s also a time when I’ve been flooded with memories of the many travel vacations Cynthia and I enjoyed together in Canada and the U.S.A., as well as through countries in Europe and the Caribbean.

Cynth was an avid and fabulous travel companion. She enjoyed exploring new places, and she was infinitely patient with my frequent misguided directions, despite the latest GPS technology at my disposal!

But more than that…she taught me a lot when we travelled. She was a supreme trip planner and always had our suitcases and packing lists set out well in advance. She impressed upon me the need to be punctual. Trains, planes, and cruise ships are not going to wait for us if we’re late for departure! And perhaps most important of all, she kept me grounded when things didn’t go as planned, and how to ‘be okay’ with the occasional ‘glitch’ that comes with travelling abroad. There was always a Plan B, or C, or…! That was Cynthia, never too ruffled if things didn’t go exactly as planned.

As we move through the first week of summer and our popular travel time in Canada, we might be reminded of the value of travel and what it adds to our lives. It opens our mind and broadens our perspective on how other people live, and what they might teach us. It can rejuvenate our spirit that becomes depleted by the responsibilities, cares, and daily timetables of our all too-structured lives. Travelling abroad often helps us appreciate the people and benefits we enjoy in our own small ‘corner’ of this big world we share together.

“Live your life by a compass, not a clock”, Erica Jong once wrote.
“A ship is safe in the harbour, but that’s not what ships are built for”, says Gael Attal.

So over to you…
What travel plans do you have for the time ahead?
How might a trip, near or distant, add some real joy and value to your life?
“Oh, the places you’ll go”!…. Dr. Seuss