The CDC listed Belgium as a “do not travel” country on November 1, 2021, and the graphs of COVID cases suggest a surge has begun in Europe, so my plans to take my son to Brussels in December have been cancelled. I was looking forward to staying at the Hilton Brussels Grand Place and my son wanted to see the Smurf statue near the hotel.
I was last in Belgium in early 2019, and enjoyed the chocolate and beer. Looking forward to when we can return.
Grand Place of Brussels
We may do a domestic road trip in Massachusetts, New Hampshire or Vermont. Any recommendations of picturesque destinations in December? P.S. We do not ski…
Just as Taylor Swift has famously released her Red album, again, this weekend. I’ve been thinking of looking back in order to move forward with my life, with my blog.
This weekend I took my 16 year old son to visit University of Maine – Farmington. And although I kept my (mostly positive) comments to myself, I couldn’t help thinking of my undergraduate experience and how that, in many ways, it marked the beginning of my adult life. And now I’m watching him start to envision the start of HIS adult life. Deep sigh filled with lots of love, for him, for life.
So, what does going to college have to do with travel? And why bring it up on a blog? I started this blog to share what I have seen, and I realize that my “ending” of parenting elementary school aged children is someone else’s (HIS) beginning. And when you get on that plane to a new destination, someone else on that same plane is on their way home from their adventure, their work trip, perhaps their goodbye to a loved one.
I’d like to take this blog deeper than hotel rooms and destinations, and reflect on what travel does for us and to us. It makes us grow up and deal and realize that the outside world often doesn’t follow the same rules that you have at home. The language can be different and the views outstandingly different. The journey takes us along paths that others have walked before (perhaps for centuries). We can be the guide or the guided. And in between take off and landing, there are moments of anticipation, excitement, and deep reflection.
Mitchell Road trees
This morning in church, our pastor mention the “inward turn” that people take in worship. Where the prayers are private, unspoken. But you take that journey in community, just as we journey in a row of people on an aircraft. Where we think we are ending a journey, we are taking steps on a new one. Surrounded by others on their own path. Those interactions we do permit, even if it’s a smile behind a mask, reflect our human community.
So, as a parent, I treasure where our family is right now. And even as this blog has been slow to take off, I’ll keep sharing where I’m at with this community, who values travel as much as I. On the way to church, I heard the song, “Closing time” by Semisonic, and the lyrics said “Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end”. Yes, be it college, childhood, motherhood, a place or a relationship.
So, today, I’ll enjoy Taylor Swift’s Red Album (TV), the remaking of her past, so wise, so admirable.
Do you have any endings or beginnings you can place in the comments. Even if it’s a word that’s meaningful to you? As the end of the year is upon us and leaves are falling, what are you leaving behind or moving toward?
