Looking Backward to Looking Forward

Hello loyal co-travelers in imagination,

The last two days have not been so wonderful! This is tge side of travel u often like to forget. Chris and I seem to be allergic to something in our bedding - maybe a freshener or fragrance. We both have runny noses and i have dizziness, nausea and sinusitis (and motion sickness on our all-day bus excursion yesterday - to the beautiful Dingle peninsula on an exceptionally clear and sunny day - motion sickness so intense that the whole day was an ordeal and I never took a single photo or even stepped off the bus except for the bathroom stops). All I could do was count the hours - 6 to go, then 5, then 3. The good news was that I didn’t have COVID (I felt obliged to test given how sick I felt and the fact that there is a lot of COVID in Ireland right now). For those of you who have not had the pleasure yet of taking a quick antigen test, the line at “C” is a control line that means the test is working. The absence of a line at “T” (for test!) means I tested negative. 

You probably remember that my sister Judy and I often draw together when we travel. During COVID we have met once a week by zoom for contemplative drawing. Often when traveling I chose a photo to inspire a drawing, and find that the practice heightens my visual awareness and pleasure both in seeing, and in choosing and framing photos. Judy and I zoomed together on Tuesday (9 in the morning there, 5 in the evening here), and I did contemplative art on my own one day. I have a tiny watercolor set with 46 colors and it is fun to experiment with all the colors and all the extra ones I can create on the palette). Since the desk in our suite is in a very dark corner, I set up the ironing board in front of the window as my little art studio. I will also disperse my two watercolor postcards (among my very first experiments with water color in nearly 50 years) and the photos that inspired them among the following paragraphs. 

Because of feeling unwell, we haven’t taken any more long walks since our lovely 10 mile walk on Thursday. We’ve mostly stayed in our room trying to sleep. We, and especially I, have had a much longer sleep disruption from jet lag this year - do you suppose our bodies have forgotten how to adjust during the years without travel?

So I have very little to discover in this post or to share with you. Did I write in an earlier post how much the theme of this Jung in Ireland gathering (Discovering the unknown Self: New Possibilities) speaks to my experience of blogging? As Chris put it during her second worshop on memoir writing (Looking Backward to Looking Forward), we write to discover ourselves: Who am i now? Who am i here(especially pertinent in travel writing)? And also since memoirs (and blogs) unlike diaries are written to be shared: Who am i in relation to you? 

 We breakfasted this morning with a couple who have been married 60 years. They created a tradition many decades ago of spending a long weekend at a spa, every few years, creating questions and writing the answers, then reading them aloud to one another, about where they were now in their marriage. They discovered and shared emerging needs and purposes in themselves, individually and in relationshio to each other. Now that really fits with the conference theme, doesnt it? I loved that he called in a “planning” and she called it a “reckoning.” Sort of like Chris’s workshop: Looking backward to looking forward. 

Saturday was my niece Rebecca’s Bat Mitzvah, twice postponed because of COVID. Chris and I had felt torn about accepting this invitation to Ireland because it would mean missing such a profound ritual and celebration in Rebecca’s life and in the life of her whole family. It was a great comfort to us to be able to join by zoom. It is not the same as being there in person with the rest of the family but it is a whole lot different from missing it entirely. I found myself surprised by tears at the beginning of Rebecca’s presentation, and again when her parents spoke their formal blessings. In an extended family such as ours (like so many human families) in which many family connections have been disrupted by divorce, by death, and by trauma, seeing an “intact” family celebrate  their youngest child’s transition into adulthood and adult membership in the community, was a big blessing. I am proud of and grateful to Rebecca and her family for giving us this opportunity. Here’s a photo from our zoom of Rebecca’s Bat Mitzvah. 

So that’s all for now. Tomorrow we head to Dublin. Thanks for joining us in the highs and the lows of our adventure.