When I was five, I sang my way across the country one summer while my dad drove his Toyota truck with the Lance camper on top, my mom in the front seat, and my sister with me in the camper reading. Now as we travel, I sit in the passenger seat knitting my way across the country. Although I am the designated driver to back up the trailer, Stephen drives the trailer everywhere. I tend to veer off to the right lane and sometimes nod off while driving, so I haven’t been promoted yet to driver. As we’re all eager to stay alive, it’s probably best that we stick to what we do best.

Zane is the same age now as I was when my family took our trip across the country to visit my dad’s family in New York. I remember bits and pieces of that trip, and I wonder how much of this trip Zane will remember. As we travel, the days fly by and if a week goes by without a blog post, I feel so far behind. And then I remember what it was like before the internet when news traveled much slower. Everything is so immediate now. Here are a few photos of our past week.

Stephen and I rented bikes in Carbondale, Colorado and took the kids on a 9-10 mile bike ride along the Colorado River. We stopped a few times and ate lunch along the river. It reminded me of the days I rode my bike from Long Beach to Seal Beach.

As I read the news, I search for words of blessing and hope as we travel around the country. I turn again to one of my favorite writers-John O’Donohue.

For the Traveler

Every time you leave home,
Another road takes you
Into a world you were never in.

New strangers on other paths await.
New places that have never seen you
Will startle a little at your entry.
Old places that know you well
Will pretend nothing
Changed since your last visit.

When you travel, you find yourself
Alone in a different way,
More attentive now
To the self you bring along,
Your more subtle eye watching
You abroad; and how what meets you
Touches that part of the heart
That lies low at home:

How you unexpectedly attune
To the timbre in some voice,
Opening in conversation
You want to take in
To where your longing
Has pressed hard enough
Inward, on some unsaid dark,
To create a crystal of insight
You could not have known
You needed
To illuminate
Your way.

When you travel,
A new silence
Goes with you,
And if you listen,
You will hear
What your heart would
Love to say.

A journey can become a sacred thing:
Make sure, before you go,
To take the time
To bless your going forth,
To free your heart of ballast
So that the compass of your soul
Might direct you toward
The territories of spirit
Where you will discover
More of your hidden life,
And the urgencies
That deserve to claim you.

May you travel in an awakened way,
Gathered wisely into your inner ground;
That you may not waste the invitations
Which wait along the way to transform you.

May you travel safely, arrive refreshed,
And live your time away to its fullest;
Return home more enriched, and free
To balance the gift of days which call you.

~ John O’Donohue ~