Off We Go!

I’m so excited I cannot sleep, although sleeping would be a good idea, as I am getting up at 2:00am!

We are leaving for Europe – London, Paris, and Rome. Just the two of us. Just for fun.

I used to say that I “never really went anywhere,” but in the last few years I managed to get to China (adoption of Daughter Two), and then to Hawaii (25th anniversary splurge). And now I am headed to Europe. Who would have thought?

They say that travel is broadening and I imagine that “they” are right. Of all the really cool things we saw in China, the thing that stands out most to me is how much it really is the same as home. Families enjoying a Sunday out in the same park where we enjoyed the street musicians, carnival rides, and cotton candy. Business people rushing home after a satisfying day at work, hurrying to grab a few precious hours of family time and relaxation before turning in. It occurred to me that, almost without exception, everyone in the world wants the same thing: to be safe, to be loved, to be useful, and to become the best of whoever they are inside. And they want these dreams for their children as well.

I always knew this; I just saw it more clearly when I went to China. I saw that, in spite of spicy eel-back meat and green bean popsicles, it is exactly the same as home.

Now I’m off several thousand miles the other direction. As I take in Westminster Abbey, the Louvre, and Vatican City, I imagine that I will rub shoulders – and exchange smiles with – a whole bunch of people who speak, eat, and dress differently than I do, but who are, in all important ways, exactly the same!