10 days to go.
Ever since we decided to go to Europe, we've often described our preparation as "untying threads"; letting go of everything that's been keeping us here. Quitting our jobs, saying no to theater projects, saying goodbye to friends we won't see for 6 months, and, at least in my case, moving out of the house I've been in for several years and back into my mother's place.
There's a reason everyone says go when you're young. At 30 years old I'm still not old per se, but I'm discovering the further you get from college, the more difficult untying those threads becomes. It's easy to think that once you have enough money, once you are more stable, once you've done all the research and planning, once once once...that it'll be easier to leave. But it's not. You just gain more threads.
I realize this is sounding dire, like past a certain age THERE'S NO HOPE or some other such nonsense. I more mean to approach this from a place of thoughtfulness, of reminiscence, of knowing that the life I was leading is ending and the life to come is beginning.
In popular media, the tarot card of Death is taken in a quite literal sense. The scared protagonist sees a creepy psychic who forsees DEEEAAAATTTTHHHH. But I take it quite differently. The card of Death is not an inherently bad card. It's about transformation. It's about letting go. It's about that feeling you get when you know that nothing will be the same. And as you might expect, that card has been showing up for me lately.
So my advice if you're planning a long travel? Untie your threads with care. Treat each one with the respect it deserves, which also includes giving it the time it deserves. With only 10 days to go and being a natural procrastinator I find myself quickly running out of time to do everything that needs doing (which will be going in a "be prepared" checklist at some point). But at least I can take a moment to just be thankful, to everyone and everything that has brought me to this point, and be open to what is to come.
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