Travel is a passion – I have been fortunate enough to see over a dozen countries on three continents so far in my lifetime. I love the anticipation of the trip, the experience of seeing new places and meeting new people, and the ability to relive those memories through pictures.
I have had fun travels with family and friends – walking through the Black Forest, taking a ferry boat between the five lands of the Cinque Terre, and strolling the Las Ramblas. My work travels have both fascinated and challenged me in ways I never thought possible. I have memories of spending less than 24 hours in Dublin to attend a single meeting and presenting product direction to a room full of Japanese pharmaceutical executives in Tokyo. I have a list of places I have been and an even longer list of the places I where I would like to go.
Over the last several years, this list has been set aside. My mom is facing a tough battle with myelofibrosis and COPD. And I promised myself I would see my parents as much as practically possible during my mom’s illness. Despite my hope to have a family one day, I am grateful that at this time in my life, I have the ability to be where I am needed when I am needed – for my mom and for me. On more than one occasion since her diagnosis in September 2006, my brother and I have been called home. When this happens, it is so important to get home.
I hesitated to include ‘travel’ in the focus of this blog at first since I have not been anywhere new in many years. But as I continued to think and to plan, I realized that each trip home is a journey of sorts. Sometimes my mom has a lot of energy and we have amazing conversations. On those trips, it feels like the times before she became ill. Other times, I am holding my mom’s hand while she lies in a hospital bed, not knowing what the next hours hold in store, let alone the next days or weeks.
Any journey involves having a new experience or the gaining of knowledge. Sometimes the knowledge isn’t what you want to learn, but its the growth that comes along with it that affects who you are as a person. For the time being, my list will remain set aside, and most of my travels will be heading home. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.
