Preparation
It is amazing to me that on Monday we are going to begin this trip. Sometimes it feels like we have been planning and planning, with the trip a distant thought. Other times it feels as if the time has come to go, and I am saying wait I am not ready!
This trip has been in the works for almost 5 years, more or less. We began talking about it after we were married, but it was more of a “wouldn’t it be great to…??” Then it became a “wait a minute I think we could do this” and now it is a reality.
And sometimes I think we have not planned enough. Other times I think we have over-planned. We have examined every what if situation we could think of. We have asked the advice of other travelers. We have researched the travel sites, talked to the doctors, consulted the lawyer. Can’t we just GO already?
So here we are, ready to go, but not ready to go. It is very scary to give up your life, and take a step off the cliff into the unknown. But at the same time I think we both agree that we have to do it. It is something that we have to try, have to see, have to do. And if we run out of money sooner than we think, or something brings us homer sooner than we would like, then it is what it is. But at least we stepped off the cliff.
There is a quote from a friend’s Peace Corps paperwork that I feel we can relate to:
If we do not offer ourselves to the
unknown, our senses dull, our world
becomes small and we lose our sense of
wonder. Our eyes will not lift to the
horizon; our ears will not hear the sounds
around us. We pass our days in a routine
that is both comfortable and limiting. We
soon wake up to find we have lost our
dreams in order to protect our days. Fear
of the unknown and the lure of the
comfortable space will conspire to keep
you from taking the chances you should
take.
But if you take a chance, you will never
regret the choice. To be sure, there will be
moments of doubt when you stand alone on
an empty road in the pouring rain, or when
you are ill with fever in a rented bed. But
as the pains of the moment will come; so
will they ever fade away. In the end you
will be so much richer, so much stronger, so
much happier and so much the better
person for having taken risk, and hardship.
There will be nothing to compare to the
insight you have gained.
