Well, I was hoping to travel lightly and dwell deeply with people, but I have predictably fallen at the first hurdle and am not travelling as lightly as I had hoped. I have a suitcase (rammed) and a backpack (not so rammed but fuller than it should be). I just got to the point when I couldn’t think what else I could take out. How like my entire life that is! Hmmm…

I wonder whether, on my travels, I will decide to ditch some things? At the moment, the thought of that is a bit scary. But maybe travelling will change my perspective? Other travellers have told me how travelling changed theirs in this sort of way.

How good would it be to hold so lightly to material things that at the slightest impulse of kindness, we could give them away? A friend reflected with me recently on how buying things is like taking. And how when we sell on our stuff on it’s a bit like taking too. “Why not give it away?” he asked. It seems to me that we all need some giving to balance out the taking. And the planet is crying out for it.

I am so touched by many gifts people have given me as we’ve parted. A visit, a lunch, a deep conversation, a cheque with a mandate to find treats en route, a coffee, a beautiful prayer. I receive these with so much gratitude today…

…And I receive my “window seat with power socket” with a giggle!! 😆

It turns out that going on a Big Trip is a bit like moving house. There are shed loads of jobs that need doing, almost none of which you’d really think of until you actually make a start. Then as soon as you begin to do one job, you find out there are at least 4 other jobs you need to do before you can do the one job you were going to do. This has been going on now for me for the past oooo forever, or so it now feels! Hence the lack of writing on here. Every so often I come across someone who loves preparation. I do declare, they are an alien species. But even the most committed preparation guru would surely be fed up of preparing by now.

Part of the preparation for me has involved doing tasks I’ve been putting off for ever, like downloading endless work videos from iCloud, copying them to an external hard drive in order to free up space for the undoubtedly numerous photos I’ll want to take on my travels. See? Jobs you never even thought were a job. And they all…take…aaaaaages! *Groan*

Some of my preparation has been much more enjoyable, though. Like looking through travel books about SE Asia to work out where I’d like to explore. But now even those tasks have become more about doing a reality check on exactly what my budget and time limitations will be. But of course I do realize most people would give their eye teeth to have such preparations to make.

On one of our Quiet/Meditation Days recently, the sun came out and I went and relaxed in the garden and forgot about it all for a bit. The cat (Xena, Warrior Princess, who is still scared of the cat flap) came and settled next to me in the sun. My brain enjoyed the rest, my body relished the gentle English sun, and I had one of those moments of suddenly feeling very maternal towards the cat. And of being aware that there is so much that I will miss about home while I am away, even though I know the 3 months will surely feel like they’ve flashed by in the end.

It’s less than a month now. Onwards…