Travel Plans
I’m starting to like my new epoch, my new era, my new period, call it what you will. I call it the Gaudalupian. If we’re looking for another analogy, it’s the blank canvas, the empty page. A different time for different things, new things. Yesterday, for instance, I turned in the paperwork to renew my passport. It expired in 2017. My first counselor in 2018 suggested I renew it and take a trip. But I dallied and tarried and procrastinated. It just seemed a monumental task I was unable to accomplish, until last week when I pushed pass the last bits of the inertia of grief. I got the paperwork. Filled it out. Went to the post office, they did their bit, and now I wait.
I have some ideas where I might like to go, and I’m in conversation with friends and we’ll see where that takes us. Heck, I may drive to Canada just for the fun of it or head into Mexico. A passport opens up a world of possibilities, and that seems promising, and a perfect thing for a guy who just climbed the highest peak in Texas at an age when a lot of guys can barely get to the garage. It seems a shame to waste that energy sitting around, because you never know what little gene or bug might be waiting to strike me down. So, I need to get moving.
And this feeling of a new life period says I’m ready. There will be challenges, especially since I had a partner for more than 50 years and it was always about us, and we planned things together. Of course, I still plan things with people, but that’s different. With a life partner, there’s always an element of surrender, of forgoing. Ideally, it’s give and take. But there’s still always give. I care about my friends, but I have to count on their understanding, because these days I mostly chart my own course, only surrendering my desires to my family.