Is It Really Your Dream? Or Someone Else’s?

I’m reading a lot about all the traveling my friends are doing. Switzerland… France… Egypt… the Netherlands. Some are Americans, some are Europeans. The Europeans have a bit of an easier time traveling from country to country, but even so, several of my American/Canadian friends are fortunate enough to cross the ocean(s) often.

I admit, I sometimes look at all of this, and there is the fleeting thought: “How did I screw up so that I can’t take vacations? Can’t travel the way they do? Don’t have the time/money/whatever else it takes?”

But then I realize: those are my parents’ ghosts talking. In the 1950s and 1960s, the idea in their circle was that if one couldn’t take a vacation, then one was somehow “lesser” than those who could — and a trip to Paris was worth so much more than a trip in-country. Everything was based on status, money, bragging rights.

And that’s not the case in my circle now, nor the case with me.

Truth to tell, I spend so much time with clients, both in person and on the phone or ZOOM, that I don’t need to travel to meet different people. When I travel now, if I can’t somehow do a talk, or a workshop, I’d as soon stay home. The wanderlust I had in my younger days is gone, replaced by content and appreciation for what surrounds me.

I would rather spend my days writing and thinking and working, with cats to hand and the hayfield and hills just outside my door, than trudging down strange streets with a checklist of what I am “supposed to want to see.”

One more example of living the Examined Life. Look at every situation that bothers you, and ask if you aren’t merely being haunted by some old ghosts that would be better exorcised.