Creating a List of Lessons
As we get closer to August 1 (the date of our return to the States), my anxiety grows. On the one hand, I want to soak in the last month of our trip and be present with my family and our visitors. On the other hand, I keep thinking about the stresses waiting for me back home.
For over a year we planned our travels, and that included so much excitement and research and strategy and decision-making. It was something extraordinary to look forward to. But now as we wrap up the trip, I know I have to face all the concerns that were backburnered for the last year and a half.
I’ve had a couple of days really feeling that stress, worrying about my next job, US politics, or the relationships and friendships I’ve been away from for so long. But today I spent time focusing on my takeaways and the lessons from our adventures. Our travels have brought such refreshing perspective, and I want to incorporate the best of those lessons into daily life back in NY.
My first lesson – every day can be considered extraordinary. The boys and I have started making a photo album including one photo from each day of our travels, and while some days were mind-blowingly-once-in-a-lifetime awesome, the photos from the quiet days also contained sweet moments and precious, small memories.
Second lesson - I can be early to things! Instead of packing too much into every minute, the sabbatical from work and the ability to set the pace of our schedule has meant that we leave plenty of time to get to where we’re going (3 hours early for every flight, heck yeah!) to alleviate the stress of rushing.
Third lesson - there is tremendous joy to be derived from low-tech, simple pleasures like making single serve Greek coffee, preparing a sit down breakfast for the family, or hanging the laundry to air dry. However, I do not derive much joy from my wasted hours on Instagram (shocker).
I’ll keep building this list over the coming weeks, and probably for a long time after that.
