The idea to take a year off and travel came together quickly. This is roughly how much it cost and this is roughly what I can make, okay l'll do it!
In 2019 my friends, Gary and Lise, invited me on one of their bike tours with Adventure Travel Group. This trip helped me build my confidence to travel. In 2022, I left my job to travel for one year.
The Story
Everything added up, COVID, work in health care, my daughter launched, then my boss changed and well, that made it easy to leave my job. Really it goes way back to 1976, my senior year in high school. We moved to Naples, Italy. I got involved in alpine climbing through programs at school called Project Bold. We took a train north to Birtchesgarden, Germany in the winter. Project Bold was modeled after the Outward Bound schools, so we did things like run (through the snow) and dip into a frozen stream. After graduating from Naples Italy high school, I went to The University of Maryland in Munich, Germany. While there, I started the Alpine Cub and started mountaineering in Austria, Switzerland and Germany. When I was heading back to the United States I thought; "I never climbed in the Dolomites."
44 years later, I am going back to do a hut trip in the Dolomites.
With the help of family and friends, I was able to move out of my condo in Boulder, Colorado and put everything in storage. My condo was rented for one year. My move back in date is April 6, 2023.
I am 64 years old, and act and behave like I am in my 20's. The reason for this lack of maturity in rooted in an inability to follow a straight path. Like, when you are 64 you need these things in place to age well and feel secure. Since I had none of these in place and I had good health, I decided if I was going to travel or do something to engage in life and myself more fully, I better do it now.
I did not know how this more engaged life was going to happen or if taking this trip would get me there.
Today is day 40 of being in Europe. I have hiked for 12 days in the Dolomites staying in huts, spent 10 lovely days with my brother and sister in law in Bologna, and this is day 15 in Ireland. Plus I stayed110 days with my kind, generous and hard working farmer sister, Concetta.
What has happened so far?
Imagine a sculpture, like the David with a real person inside under the marble. Everyone that looks at him projects their own ideas who he is, or should be, they judge him, his flaws, and his inadequacies.
All these years it has been absorbed into the porous limestone, into the real person inside. He decides not to follow those ideas, just hang out and believe what he hears and do with what is expected of him. So he stands still. One day he can't stand it anymore and leaves, walks out of the marble and lets it crack and crumble to the floor. Done with that life. But what is he walking into?
What did I walk into? The Farm: Where the cracks began. My sister's farm and family lovingly allowed me the space and time to emotionally let go of what had been absorbed. The Dolomites: daily physical challenge greater than I imagined or ever remember doing, broke through what past physical illness had stunted. Visit with David: My brother, not the statue. Nurturing, loving family reboot. Ireland: facing the deeper world of self concepts that are just not true, but they are hard to let go. Ireland has such a rustic beauty that is hard to get to with all the crazy winding, narrow roads, but when you do get there, it is breathtakingly beautiful, and the Atlantic ocean adds mystery and aww to the experience because it has so much power. Like life, unpredictable. I will add more details to each of these experiences in the specific blog topic.
Time to go visit Saint Bridget's well that legend says has healing qualities.
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