Preparing for the Journey

I woke this morning early and reminded myself that I didn’t need to rush, I don’t have a Sunday School Class and can therefore take my time, I turned over and didn’t get up until 6:45, I felt quite guilty. I lay in bed listening to the small waterfall that splashes into the koi ponds, felt the cool fresh dry air from the window gently blowing across the bed and gave thanks to God for a beautiful new day.


As I write I wait for the coffee to brew and already feel like my vacation has begun. Today will involve a last visit for 17 days to the Health Center to check on residents. Next the packing will have to be accomplished and then the mini panic as I go through the unnecessary ritual of worry might/could go wrong on the trip. After stated that here maybe I can skip that this trip!

I am very excited about the trip it has taken the usual planning and includes a variety of places that cover the interests of both Bill and myself. Not only will there be visits with family in Silver Springs and sightseeing in DC but on our return trip we visit West Virginia, Kentucky and Indiana. We will explore history, glass making, bonsai, Appalachian crafts and education, utopian communities, railroads and rivers. We will drive through country we have not experienced before and relax and renew ourselves spiritually. Each time I prepare a trip I anticipate the adventure and the wonder that within the borders of the United States there is such variety of landmass, culture and people. I trust we will explore with open eyes, minds and hearts all that is offered us in the coming days. I believe every well planned journey is a pilgrimage, where we encounter the sacred spaces of life and land. I am ready for this adventure.

On the Road

The trip is going well, I could post last since the motel I was in did not have a good Internet connection. Tonight we are in Liverpool, NY. We have enjoyed taking the trip at a leisurely pace, I had forgotten that the highways heading East had speed limits of 55 or 65 miles an hour, not that everyone stays within those limits.

The weather has been kind, gray with cloud cover, and bursts of golden sunshine. Going East on 90, means traveling miles and miles within a tree lined canyon divided by a grassy median....arched every 10-20 miles by bridges.

I have had a few wildlife sitings, but not as many as I might have hoped for. A Peregrine Falcon eyeing it's breakfast, not in view long enough to know if it was successful. A flock of wild turkeys enjoying an early lunch on an embankment beside I-90 as we entered Ashtabula county, and a red tail hawk flew low over the highway in front of us. In contrast to these meager sitings we have seen at least one car from 44 States and Alberta, Ontario and New Brunswick. We are a people on the move. At 4:25 EST we had logged 1000 miles. Tomorrow we will be in Vermont, and plan to spend some time at Weston Priory, a place I have adopted as a spiritual home since 1969.