Those of you who have known me for many years, are familiar with my pre-pandemic schedule. I traveled once a month on business, often to photograph quilt festivals. To keep our staff safe, I stopped traveling over a year ago. We also have not seen any sales reps inside our building during the pandemic, because they travel to several states. As much as we love our wandering sales reps, our commitment to our staff’s safety has been our top priority.
So for those of us who love to travel, it has been an especially painful year. Now that health experts are warning that Spring Break travel could bring on a 4th wave of Covid, and help incubate variants, I am sticking to my commitment with our staff…even though I am vaccinated. If you don’t know why, just read the news this week.
I bet many of you are longing for a road trip or a beach break now, so I am offering some images to hopefully give you a little mental break. I’ve been listening to ocean waves at night before I go to sleep. I’ve been meditating and visualizing that I am walking in a rainforest. I’ve been reviewing my photos that I’ve taken on past trips. I’ve been watching Nature TV shows about beautiful wildlife and lush habitats. I changed my ringtone to a melodic bird call. In a couple weeks our crab apple trees will burst into bloom, and I will have my morning coffee under the drifting pink petals. This is how I will nurture my sanity, especially after the traumatic events in Boulder last week.
Since we lost Paul’s parents, aunt, uncle and sister on Oahu, we are not traveling to Hawaii, but I still dream about the islands. For many years I took the kids once a year to see the grandparents, and the trip highlight was going snorkeling at dawn, in Hanauma Bay. There we floated among the yellow, blue, green, orange and shimmering silver reef fish…communed with green sea turtles…and dodged an eel or two. I close my eyes and dream of floating in lukewarm waves, and it helps me to get through another day. How about you?
…with hope for the future,
Luana and Paul
“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo.
“So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
J.R.R. Tolkien – The Fellowship of The Ring
