And Before I Go...

It is late at night.  We are about to leave on a trip in the morning.  The house is quiet except for the tumble and whirrrrr of last minute laundry in the washer.  The moon is full and bright, casting moving shadows on the landscape.

I'm busily cleaning and preparing for our trip.  I'm putting back the box of books I know I won't get a chance to read and the extra bag of beads I probably won't touch.  I've laid out my clothes, editing two t-shirts instead of ten.  From the growing pile of toiletries, I've selected the essentials... knowing that if I forget something, there is no shortage of sunscreen or toothpaste or whatever I might need where we're going.

I run through the list of things to do, the things I must remember to remind, and the things I'd best forget.  The act of going through the list crosses an item off the list.

In recent years, my traveling has been limited and I've gotten out of the routines.  I used to have a bag of toiletries already packed and at the ready.  I used to have travel clothes already planned... clothes that could be layered, did not wrinkle, were comfortable (but cute), and all went together.

It speaks to the changes in my life, of settling down and growing roots and growing up.  It'll be nice to get away and see my family and have a change of scenery.  Traveling always puts me in a thoughtful mood.  I think about the people we pass, manning the lonely gas station in the middle of no where, or pouring coffee in a crowded cafe.  I think about the mountains and the trees and the little streams we pass by.  I wonder who was the last person to walk down that path, picked flowers in that pasture or even thought the things I'm thinking.

It's late at night.  We are about to leave on a trip in the morning.  There's still cleaning to done and one last project to squeeze out and another list to make.

And before I go, there's a blog post to finish...