I have something like 986,000 air miles with one airline. So, I’m just 14k short of being celebrated as a “million mile member” with them. And that is just one of three airlines I used a lot when I travelled globally for decades in my career. I don’t think I will ever achieve that status though. Since I retired to take care of my partner, we have flown only once. It’s not that we cannot fly to any destination, although traveling with a disabled person is quite difficult. It is only that I do not “have to” travel by air anymore, so I don’t. I’m not sure I would do it if I had only myself to take care of now. Do I hate traveling? No, I still find getting away from home to be stimulating and rewarding. But flying is much more difficult and demanding than getting into a car and driving where and when I want to go. Which brings me to my comment about your dreams. When I dream, my mind creates complex and problematic situations/people that I am supposed to remedy. You see, for all those years of travel to foreign places, my job was to fix complicated manufacturing issues. But I learned that those problems with machinery were mostly caused by people/organizations that also had problems. So, when they occurred at the same time, I was sent to “fix them”. And I also learned that if you fixed the people problems, the manufacturing issues were the easiest things to repair. I was successful because my approach was supportive and not destructive of the existing local organization. And when we agreed on a path to fix the problem, I usually left to allow them to do it. No “scorched earth” solutions. However, my dreams today are of things that seem too difficult to be fixed, like my partner. At least not to the extent that they were originally. Most dreams are never resolved, but I mostly seem to be in the process of resolving them, when I wake up. Same for those dreams where I am in a “fight/flight” situation where I struggle but never realize an ending. The salient point of my comment is that my career was spent successfully resolving things that in my dreams are never realized. I would guess; remaining short of becoming a “million miler” with an airline, my resting mind is more stimulated by the process of solving problems than the resolution itself. Something like; “the journey is more important than the destination”.
Dreams
“Life is but a dream”
So the nursery rhyme goes…
But dreams are not real.
Sweet dreams; made of this
Who am I to disagree?
Looking for something…
Above is my haiku version of the song “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” by the Eurythmics in 1983.
The opening, and closing, of this piece are just brilliant. SO close to 1 million miles, and yet not hung up at all on the number. Truly, the way you closed it, that the journey is more important than the destination. It's more about the miles you've flown, than the addition of them. It's about the where, the what, the who, the why. I love this so much.
I was raised to wait until retirement to do the fun things. Several near death experiences and the changing world have changed that. I do things for the plot now. Figure it out a few steps at a time. I'd rather reread about all my adventures when I'm older than regret not doing them.
I am so thrilled that you learned a lesson that most wait far, far, far too long to learn, NOW. It's about the going, and the learning, and the changing, not about the waiting to do all those things. Like the Lemony Snicket book so wisely said: "If we wait until we're ready, we'll be waiting the rest of our lives."
I can certainly relate. I frequently revisit photos and videos from trips and gatherings to try and preserve what really happened before my mind inevitably warps the memories. But I feel that the feelings connected to those experiences never get distorted. They’re hardwired in me for better, or worse.
If you figure some of this stuff out before you’re 30 then I’d consider you some sort of genius at life. Unfortunately, many of us need to have lived long enough in order to have enough time to travel, appreciate things, experience loss, love, and all the complex emotions that are birthed from these experiences. I think it’s great that you’re taking the time to appreciate all of your experiences, but I hope that there are many more stickers to be added from here on out.
Fully agree on this Chris. Pre-30, I almost thing we CANNOT know these things. We just don't have the ability. Some things, only time can teach. Truly. As for adding more stickers, I don't plan on ever stopping, damn the consequences to my busy brain! :)
I haven’t been much of a wanderer but I do have a sense of what you are describing in my own life. I feel that I have lived through different “lifetimes”, like your trips, that when I look back start to meld together. I ask myself, in your words, “Was I there, was I that?” Things which might have seemed so important at the time, now, in retrospect, have lost their clarity, although, as you said, these memories do make us who we are today. I loved this: “Maybe all life is, all it should be, is the collecting of a million memories…” This suggests to me a certain fluidity of experience, impressions made on who we are over time, rather than looking at ourselves, our lives, as being sharply defined by significant experiences only. I hope my memories are filled with “a billion chances to be kind that we took”. What a beautiful idea that is.
This is so precisely it. Not only "Where" were we, but WHO were we. I think we change, a bit, every single trip we take. We shift, we become more, we lose more that we do not need.
Having just returned back from my yearly pilgrimage north, I can relate so much to this one. I have always been a traveller. I am enamoured with and fascinated by the people of this world and the archetypal characters that I can find near and far upon the road. There is something magical about living in the moment while travelling. I am not one for making a lot of plans but prefer to see where the world takes me. It has taken me to some pretty wonderful places!
Last year, I decided to add on to my trip to visit family friends and donors in Canada and do something just for me. A bucket list item if you will. It made me realize I prefer to live in the bucket! And so now I will always make sure to add something special just for me to my trips home. This year I returned once again to the beautiful Red Rocks to watch Gregory Alan Isakov and his incredible band in that magical venue. It was made even more special because Leif Vollebekk was playing with him. I implore that anyone who hasn't heard these poetic geniuses yet, to do yourself a favour and give them both a listen. You will not be sorry!
It was the very last night of my trip. It was the perfect ending to my time away from my world here in the jungle where I really don't have a lot of time for me. I was filled with so much love and gratitude for all the people that I had spent time with. I was encouraged by the new connections I had managed to make with donors along the way. A weird way that I justify taking time off at all by making sure that every place I go, I am able to seek out funding opportunities for my organization! Seeing live music is my happy place and this venue may be my Mecca. It is truly spectacular and I was still reeling in the bliss of the evening the next morning as I took the LRT out to the Denver airport to begin my trip home. As soon as I entered the airport, I was hit with a harsh jolt of reality: I was going home and needed to find gates, terminals and play the game of whether its shoes off and everything out or shoes on and everything in TSA screening machine! I was shook by the moment and woke up in a daze as I tried to find my bearings. The signage was not that helpful so I asked a human for some guidance as to where I needed to go. Upon finding my stride, who did I find in the same daze of confusion? Leif Vollebekk! I could only imagine that his bubble of bliss had been way more full than mine was after his experience on that stage, so I gently took him by the arm and led him up the escalator where we found the needed gates to begin the TSA screening before having to head to our respective terminals and gates. I thanked him for an amazing concert and we chatted about this being one of the more difficult airports that we had been too. Both of us have seen our share of airports and it made me feel better about having been flustered upon entry too! We parted ways and I was grateful to be have given yet another moment of travel magic that reinforced my love of the random connections that we make in this world!
PS Tyler, he's playing in Cork on Thursday just in case you can pop over! Tell him Heather from Guatemala says hi if you do!
You truly are a peripatetic soul, and I relate so much to it. I love that your travel fills you with that gratitude, that awe, that appreciation. I hope you know how special that is, and how hard it is to Teach that to someone else. How amazing you got to share time with Leif, what a special human. Denver Airport is a nightmare, and you're a saint for helping him through it. You're so rad, I hope you always see that.
I find that I often cling to memories that are familiar to the place or stage of life I’m in, while releasing ones that feel distant.
I can recall conversations verbatim, but get together with childhood friends and not remember seemingly pivotal moments that they recall with ease. Yet, when I return to the places near where those memories took place (such as when I moved back to my hometown) they slowly began returning, like little flashes of “remember when”.
Part of me feels that it’s because I immerse myself so wholly in the moment I’m living in, that I just let go of the past. Part of me wonders if I just have memory problems. I’m not sure why, but it has made me want to be more intentional to pay attention and hold onto things that are significant to me. Whether through journaling, photography, or some other mode, I don’t want to let moments of my life be completely let go. It’s an interesting realization I’ve had over the last few years, that I’ve just been letting marinate.
Ahh this is such insight! It's like a constant ebb and flow, a cleaning of the waters, as it were. I love that. I kind of adore how this works for you, and don't think it's about memory problems, more about the best allocation of your mental energy. I think it's wonderful.
I have traveled very little. Too much work, not enough money, etc. But the places I have been, Charleston SC, Savannah, GA, Portland, OR - are very special to me. I can recall the meals I ate in those places, the people I met, the things that I saw, the places I walked. All travel is a gift and a joy. I am grateful for every opportunity I have had.
Aren't we blessed!! So many places, faces, foods, sights, moments..... what a story we have created since you were two days old....
Here's to YOUR adventure, that's just beginning now! I cannot wait for all you're going to see!
I have something like 986,000 air miles with one airline. So, I’m just 14k short of being celebrated as a “million mile member” with them. And that is just one of three airlines I used a lot when I travelled globally for decades in my career. I don’t think I will ever achieve that status though. Since I retired to take care of my partner, we have flown only once. It’s not that we cannot fly to any destination, although traveling with a disabled person is quite difficult. It is only that I do not “have to” travel by air anymore, so I don’t. I’m not sure I would do it if I had only myself to take care of now. Do I hate traveling? No, I still find getting away from home to be stimulating and rewarding. But flying is much more difficult and demanding than getting into a car and driving where and when I want to go. Which brings me to my comment about your dreams. When I dream, my mind creates complex and problematic situations/people that I am supposed to remedy. You see, for all those years of travel to foreign places, my job was to fix complicated manufacturing issues. But I learned that those problems with machinery were mostly caused by people/organizations that also had problems. So, when they occurred at the same time, I was sent to “fix them”. And I also learned that if you fixed the people problems, the manufacturing issues were the easiest things to repair. I was successful because my approach was supportive and not destructive of the existing local organization. And when we agreed on a path to fix the problem, I usually left to allow them to do it. No “scorched earth” solutions. However, my dreams today are of things that seem too difficult to be fixed, like my partner. At least not to the extent that they were originally. Most dreams are never resolved, but I mostly seem to be in the process of resolving them, when I wake up. Same for those dreams where I am in a “fight/flight” situation where I struggle but never realize an ending. The salient point of my comment is that my career was spent successfully resolving things that in my dreams are never realized. I would guess; remaining short of becoming a “million miler” with an airline, my resting mind is more stimulated by the process of solving problems than the resolution itself. Something like; “the journey is more important than the destination”.
Dreams
“Life is but a dream”
So the nursery rhyme goes…
But dreams are not real.
Sweet dreams; made of this
Who am I to disagree?
Looking for something…
Above is my haiku version of the song “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” by the Eurythmics in 1983.
Yes, we all have dreams,
Cut short by waking moments.
Enjoy the journey.
The opening, and closing, of this piece are just brilliant. SO close to 1 million miles, and yet not hung up at all on the number. Truly, the way you closed it, that the journey is more important than the destination. It's more about the miles you've flown, than the addition of them. It's about the where, the what, the who, the why. I love this so much.
I was raised to wait until retirement to do the fun things. Several near death experiences and the changing world have changed that. I do things for the plot now. Figure it out a few steps at a time. I'd rather reread about all my adventures when I'm older than regret not doing them.
I am so thrilled that you learned a lesson that most wait far, far, far too long to learn, NOW. It's about the going, and the learning, and the changing, not about the waiting to do all those things. Like the Lemony Snicket book so wisely said: "If we wait until we're ready, we'll be waiting the rest of our lives."
I can certainly relate. I frequently revisit photos and videos from trips and gatherings to try and preserve what really happened before my mind inevitably warps the memories. But I feel that the feelings connected to those experiences never get distorted. They’re hardwired in me for better, or worse.
If you figure some of this stuff out before you’re 30 then I’d consider you some sort of genius at life. Unfortunately, many of us need to have lived long enough in order to have enough time to travel, appreciate things, experience loss, love, and all the complex emotions that are birthed from these experiences. I think it’s great that you’re taking the time to appreciate all of your experiences, but I hope that there are many more stickers to be added from here on out.
Fully agree on this Chris. Pre-30, I almost thing we CANNOT know these things. We just don't have the ability. Some things, only time can teach. Truly. As for adding more stickers, I don't plan on ever stopping, damn the consequences to my busy brain! :)
I haven’t been much of a wanderer but I do have a sense of what you are describing in my own life. I feel that I have lived through different “lifetimes”, like your trips, that when I look back start to meld together. I ask myself, in your words, “Was I there, was I that?” Things which might have seemed so important at the time, now, in retrospect, have lost their clarity, although, as you said, these memories do make us who we are today. I loved this: “Maybe all life is, all it should be, is the collecting of a million memories…” This suggests to me a certain fluidity of experience, impressions made on who we are over time, rather than looking at ourselves, our lives, as being sharply defined by significant experiences only. I hope my memories are filled with “a billion chances to be kind that we took”. What a beautiful idea that is.
This is so precisely it. Not only "Where" were we, but WHO were we. I think we change, a bit, every single trip we take. We shift, we become more, we lose more that we do not need.
Having just returned back from my yearly pilgrimage north, I can relate so much to this one. I have always been a traveller. I am enamoured with and fascinated by the people of this world and the archetypal characters that I can find near and far upon the road. There is something magical about living in the moment while travelling. I am not one for making a lot of plans but prefer to see where the world takes me. It has taken me to some pretty wonderful places!
Last year, I decided to add on to my trip to visit family friends and donors in Canada and do something just for me. A bucket list item if you will. It made me realize I prefer to live in the bucket! And so now I will always make sure to add something special just for me to my trips home. This year I returned once again to the beautiful Red Rocks to watch Gregory Alan Isakov and his incredible band in that magical venue. It was made even more special because Leif Vollebekk was playing with him. I implore that anyone who hasn't heard these poetic geniuses yet, to do yourself a favour and give them both a listen. You will not be sorry!
It was the very last night of my trip. It was the perfect ending to my time away from my world here in the jungle where I really don't have a lot of time for me. I was filled with so much love and gratitude for all the people that I had spent time with. I was encouraged by the new connections I had managed to make with donors along the way. A weird way that I justify taking time off at all by making sure that every place I go, I am able to seek out funding opportunities for my organization! Seeing live music is my happy place and this venue may be my Mecca. It is truly spectacular and I was still reeling in the bliss of the evening the next morning as I took the LRT out to the Denver airport to begin my trip home. As soon as I entered the airport, I was hit with a harsh jolt of reality: I was going home and needed to find gates, terminals and play the game of whether its shoes off and everything out or shoes on and everything in TSA screening machine! I was shook by the moment and woke up in a daze as I tried to find my bearings. The signage was not that helpful so I asked a human for some guidance as to where I needed to go. Upon finding my stride, who did I find in the same daze of confusion? Leif Vollebekk! I could only imagine that his bubble of bliss had been way more full than mine was after his experience on that stage, so I gently took him by the arm and led him up the escalator where we found the needed gates to begin the TSA screening before having to head to our respective terminals and gates. I thanked him for an amazing concert and we chatted about this being one of the more difficult airports that we had been too. Both of us have seen our share of airports and it made me feel better about having been flustered upon entry too! We parted ways and I was grateful to be have given yet another moment of travel magic that reinforced my love of the random connections that we make in this world!
PS Tyler, he's playing in Cork on Thursday just in case you can pop over! Tell him Heather from Guatemala says hi if you do!
You truly are a peripatetic soul, and I relate so much to it. I love that your travel fills you with that gratitude, that awe, that appreciation. I hope you know how special that is, and how hard it is to Teach that to someone else. How amazing you got to share time with Leif, what a special human. Denver Airport is a nightmare, and you're a saint for helping him through it. You're so rad, I hope you always see that.
I find that I often cling to memories that are familiar to the place or stage of life I’m in, while releasing ones that feel distant.
I can recall conversations verbatim, but get together with childhood friends and not remember seemingly pivotal moments that they recall with ease. Yet, when I return to the places near where those memories took place (such as when I moved back to my hometown) they slowly began returning, like little flashes of “remember when”.
Part of me feels that it’s because I immerse myself so wholly in the moment I’m living in, that I just let go of the past. Part of me wonders if I just have memory problems. I’m not sure why, but it has made me want to be more intentional to pay attention and hold onto things that are significant to me. Whether through journaling, photography, or some other mode, I don’t want to let moments of my life be completely let go. It’s an interesting realization I’ve had over the last few years, that I’ve just been letting marinate.
Ahh this is such insight! It's like a constant ebb and flow, a cleaning of the waters, as it were. I love that. I kind of adore how this works for you, and don't think it's about memory problems, more about the best allocation of your mental energy. I think it's wonderful.
I have traveled very little. Too much work, not enough money, etc. But the places I have been, Charleston SC, Savannah, GA, Portland, OR - are very special to me. I can recall the meals I ate in those places, the people I met, the things that I saw, the places I walked. All travel is a gift and a joy. I am grateful for every opportunity I have had.
Each place you mentioned IS magic! Seriously! I'm so glad you got that.