The Joys of Tripping

The Joys of Tripping

Dear old and new friends,

     Taking a trip, be it a short excursion across town or a longer one by plane, train or car, needs along with some advance planning and budgeting a secret success formula. Vacation trips are much anticipated as future good times, yet regardless how well they are planned often they turn out to be anything but happy.

     Trip thieves that steal a good time are all those circumstances beyond our control— canceled flights or lost luggage, expensive car engine repairs requiring days of delay, sickness, being in a four-car highway collision or simply getting lost, and the ultimate thief, rain which upon reaching the place of your vacation it does almost continuously. Many Europeans call vacations “holidays,” a twin to a holy day, and to have a happy, holy vacation requires desire and a formula. If you are taking a trip to Yellowstone National Park or only traveling across town, let your trip begin with this possible departure ritual: After backing out of your garage, pause briefly to look at your home with loving appreciation for all the gifts of life you have received within it. Secondly, hold an “intention” that was Emerson’s I believe, who said, “When you leave home for a short walk or a long trip, always leave it as if you will never return! Such a double-barrel departure provides a unique quality to your trip.

     The driver or a travel companion also might recite aloud these words of John Steinbeck, “...we do not take a trip; a trip takes us.” Paradoxically this is equally true of life; we don’t so much live a life as we are lived by our life. Likewise, both life and a trip are adventures of the unexpected, of the often astonishingly unanticipated, and even miraculous, when experiencing a near-miss accident or finding healing in a life-threatening illness! To add some mystical mischief to your trip, peer behind the commonplace and under the mundane you encounter with a detective’s diligence for clues of the responsible Culprit Creator.

     Our eyes are so easily blindfolded by repetition, so in order to see the old and familiar, or the new and different, strive to see with Adam’s Eden-new eyes. Every café or diner along the way offers your taste buds the prospect of new tangs and flavors, even if you find them not as good as your home cooking. But if you’re only comfortable with the familiar, why let a trip take you to anything unfamiliar?

     God wishes that your trip and your life will be enjoyable. Being able to control our thoughts of how we react to any un-pleasantries on those journeys, we do not have to be victims of circumstances! Trips and life are accomplished waltz-like as we move from here to there. I was told that as an infant my dad would sing “The Sidewalks of New York” as he cradled me in his arms while waltzing around.

          East side, West side,
          All around the town,
          The tots sang 'Ring-a-Rosie',
          'London Bridge is falling down!
          Boys and girls together,
          Me and Mamie O'Rorke,
          Tripped the light fantastic
          On the sidewalks of New York.