by RubyLane

Created on: November 07, 2011

They say that the journey is usually more enjoyable than the destination.   I’m not so sure that it holds true in this instance.  My journey was planned with great execution, accompanied by all amenities working in my favor – the destination was just as exciting and fun as had been hoped and planned.  There were some surprises, good and bad. 

Seventeen thousand miles – 15 time zones – and week 6 into the travels and I am so ready for home.   Home means really the variety of clothes in my closet that I can choose.   Enough clean underwear in the drawer without having to use  expensive hotel laundry.  And my own bed. 

Genuinely spending quality time with people I really enjoyed was rewarding from all the planning, and scheduling that sometimes  had to be juggled to suit life’s fluidity. 

I renewed a thirty year old friendship and increased the “love” by a thousand fold.  We never stop talking for the 10 days spent together.   There was more than enough to laugh and cry and I learnt so much about life, in listening and giving.  

I validated a friendship generally made through the amicable world of internet communication.   It was a three day intense sharing of political views, cultural dilemma and intense love of our country over several meals which cemented an unsaid understanding of another love.

I visited close relatives on a week of intense terrorist scare, the tenth anniversary of 9/11 in New York.   Outside the usual normal family gathering, we were able to understand and reinforced greater familial ties without all the fake get-togethers brought about by some religious ceremony, funerals or weddings.

And most important I went to reassure and approve of daughter’s choice of partner.  A delight to spend time seeing love emerging and happiness in her joyous disposition. Nothing more enjoyable than a mother & daughter shopping together, giggling over shared jokes, or trying on clothes in a tight cubicle in Nordstrom.  Helping each other survive the daily obstacles.  I met with many, delightful in their own way, new friends, that for some strange reason, they touched my heart from the word go.  

I left with mission accomplished.   Of all the trips made, and there have been many, this by far gave me what it means to take the time to see the people that mattered in life and to make those unsaid words meaningful by just merely being there with them.

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