Travel Is Good For The Soul

One day you’ll wake up and there won’t be any more time to do the things you’ve always wanted. Do it now.

Paul Coelho

This quote sums up my attitude about life in general.

Maybe I have this attitude because I had breast cancer in 2005. I thought my life was coming to a screeching halt. But life didn’t stop, and fortunately, I’ve been in remission for close to seventeen years. Yay!

After treatment, my only thought was, ‘let me live until the kids are out of high school.’ And a couple of years later, my musing went to ‘keep close relationships with kids and family,’ ‘learn how to write fiction,’ ‘improve health,’ ‘travel,’ and a few other specific ‘must do’s.’

All my future ideas are not ‘one and done,’ meaning they’re all a process. All of these nurture my soul and keep me hopeful.

The idea to become a published writer was a twelve-year learning adventure before a contract was offered. Today, I finished my copy edits and returned the manuscript to the editor. Another yay moment!

Now, I’m off to explore the following destinations on my travel list after a three-year delay because of COVID restrictions.

Traveling to other countries has always fascinated me. Maybe because I grew up in poverty and lived in bland government housing projects. The furthest I traveled before age eighteen was three hours away to San Diego, California.

I read many books as a kid and envisioned the places I read about: England, France, Spain, Mexico, and everywhere.

But, I worked a lot, mothered three kids as a single mom, and had neither the money nor energy to do any travel overseas until they were in high school. From then on, I was bitten by the travel bug.

Today, I’m leaving for Edinburgh, Scotland, Belfast, and Dublin, Ireland. We’ll travel by plane, train, and rental car. Meeting locals and exploring their part of the world is so exciting. I’m eager to walk through the Scottish Highlands and the castles and have a Guinness at a pub.

I’m traveling with my sister, who revels in summer after a long school year. She’s the driver of our rental car through Scotland because her first car was an old stick-shift VW Bug. We rented a manual because it’s cheaper and we budget.

To tell you the truth, I’m concerned about her driving on the left side of the road. She says, “no biggie, I’m left-handed, after all.”

Uh, okay.

I read up on the travel books in honor of the big trip and even bought a selfie stick. I felt guilty about that purchase since I’m the person who complains when the youngsters whip out their sticks like light sabers at crowded travel sites.

But I’m tired of getting a travel shot of mostly my face and very little of the fabulous background. Hopefully, I’ll take a few great photos.

If you’d like to see a few photos of my travels and hopefully better selfies, click the Instagram button at the top of the post.

And if you have any travel tips for Edinburgh, Inverness, Glasgow, Belfast, or Dublin, let me know.

Until next month. Be well.