Time to go!

It will take me longer than I expected to get to Oman tonight. Tomorrow morning seems late for just four little time zones. The plane pulling away from the gate always makes me sleepy, but takeoff or the first drinks will wake me, and that’ll be it for the duration, one hour or twelve. So no sleep tonight, and of course I stayed up later than advisable last night, meaning I really should be conserving energy.

So why am I dancing around the room and singing enough to hopefully not bug the neighbors? Because good god travel is fun!! Ruthlessly uncomfortable, vulnerable, and an eloquent reminder that you know nothing. But so much beauty between the steps.

Tomorrow I’ll be somewhere I’ve never been. I don’t speak the language. I have only a mild sense of what I’ll do for the next two weeks. What to do around transport, water, and money? Will I speak or will this be a trip of pages, journal, book, sudoku? I can’t wait to find out.

The constant soggy weight of wondering how to get my tours in front of the right eyes is gone. Travel brings its own justification and topics. The future will sort itself out fine. Instead, where is my next food, conversation, smile? What can I learn each today, in a new place?

There’s a war next door and the region is known for it, but I know that will likely never show up in my visit. Besides, as capitalist greed and the right-wing governments that donate our organs to it continue to thrive and accelerate us toward the cliff, such things are only going to come back big time. So better learn to not let proximity bother you.

I’m eating a bizarre banquet of perishables in my fridge. Thank goodness olives go with everything. I delivered the zucchini, extra avocado, and half a bottle of good Romanian wine to the neighbor this morning. Quite strange to pass that over in the hallway. How marvelous. I give thanks for days and details unlike the others in any of a zillion sparkling ways.

Today I join a tradition I’ve only ever seen before, as a former resident of Central California. I’m fleeing winter clime for warmer daylight, and I feel like winking conspiratorially at the clouds. Or apologizing to them. Will spring sneak in while I’m away? The first snowdrop blossoms are picnicking under the naked trees already. The year, the life, the universe is proceeding, and when I look back at this piece of it, I’ll soon have memory and images with which to populate it.

What a beautiful time to be alive. What a beautiful world to do it in. Happy travels, my friends.