Love Letter #74: When everything turns upside down

Plans fly helter-skelter as if with wings of their own

Aug 17, 2024

(We know the day we were born, but most of us do not know the day we will die. This love letter to my life is written on the day I've designated as my death day: the 17th of every month, and reminds me to be grateful for my joy-filled life. —Joyce Wycoff)

It's been an interesting year.

It began with prepping for an adventure in Mexico, then dithering, then cancelling, then wondering why. When a workshop called me to France, I took up the challenge once again to make a significant journey.

As of my last love letter to my life, I was looking for the meaning that would turn the trip to France into a “pilgrimage” and thinking it might mean expanding the trip to include all the fanciful architects I’ve fallen in love with over the years (Gaudi, Gehry, Hundertwasser). That exploration added more countries and weeks to the possibilities, and then …

Suddenly, as suddenly is wont to do …

the US election season turned upside down and I didn’t want to do anything but be part of the joy and hope that was flooding across the country as if a monstrous dam of frustration and hopelessness had just broken. I contemplated cancelling another trip…

My mind shifts easily and often, sometimes leaving me feeling quite flakey.

However, schedules were in place and tickets were booked. And, I could be part of the election effort and be back for the final weeks of the campaign.

So, this morning I made my countdown list and started mental preparations for the 27 days between now and departure, including walking a labyrinth each day between now and then. I’m fortunate to have access to a large labyrinth on the UCSB campus and a smaller one across the street. The image above is the larger one and the message that arrived as I walked it was:

“No shortcuts”

As you get close to the center labyrinth, there's a very easy step-over shortcut that takes you immediately into the center. If you stay on the path, however, you wind up doing another partial circuit. My rational mind hesitated. The sun was hot and I was tired … and it would be only “a little cheat.” However, “No shortcuts” flashed through my mind and I decided that would be one of my guidelines for this trip, remembering that the point isn’t the “where” or “how fast” but the journey and the experience.

"All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware."

-- Martin Buber

What is the secret destination for this journey? I don’t know, but I’m trying to create an openness that will help me recognize it should it appear. Here are some of the other guidelines I’m contemplating:

Connect with people, places, and possibilities

Traveling alone has its challenges, however, it’s also the best way to meet people, connect with new places, and experience possibilities beyond guidebooks. It does require a willingness to step into unplanned moments and invite uncertainty, as well as possible rejection and “nice tries that didn’t work.”

Learn and Create - Follow curiosity and find the telling details

Those elusive details often lurk in unexpected places, popping up in breaks from routine, but seldom showing themselves at the end of long lines nor in hotel lobbies. Fortunate are those who are there and paying attention when they appear.

(Full disclosure: the original of this image included another bison that was only apparent as a third rear leg. Grateful for image edit software.)

Share Glimpses that engage

Blue Heron morning / focused awareness in play / every moment.

I’ve just started making short videos and hope to bring home a flipbook full of glimpses from the journey.

Open Call for France Memories/Images as a NOTES thread:

This will be my first trip to France so I’d love to see and share photos you’ve taken with a brief insight on why that photo, that memory. Please add to NOTES and tag me. (Suggestion for text: Your name, your Substack title, where image was taken, why it was meaningful for you.)

What guidelines have you created for your journeys?

What helps you gain insight and joy as you travel? How do you capture and share your memories? What extends the trip beyond the finite period of time when you are there rather than here?