Moving Forward, Embracing Change - An Additional Goal for My Third Thirty

I'm reading "Under the Tuscan Sun" as we get ready to leave next week for Florence. I read "Prague Winter" last fall as we cruised the Rhine with Prague as our eventual destination. I loved being immersed in Madeleine Albright's story, and I loved seeing the places she had seen as a child.

I expect to feel the same as I wander Florence and several smaller Tuscan villages over the next two weeks. Already the lush language and beautiful setting of the book has me under its spell.

I was most struck by a line from the preface. Mayes observes, "To bury the grape tendril in such a way that it shoots out new growth I recognize easily as a metaphor for the way life must change from time to time if we are to go forward in our thinking." I read this, then read it again. "Wow," I thought. "I know so many people who need to hear this."

Especially as we age, we seem to feel as though we're in the final act of our lives, that new ideas and experiences are reserved for the young, that we must go about the business of tidying up our loose ends, then sit quietly and contemplate the past. At age 66, I observe this behavior in family and friends. It's simply never occurred to me, before I read this sentence of Frances Mayes', that change and forward movement are forever. How exciting to think that at any moment, around any corner, there may be something new that completely alters my course, even at my age!

I think this might be what frightens many people when they think of no longer being actively working for a living. It's not surprising; we spend decades working, striving, failing, trying again, succeeding - and finally quitting, sometimes just from exhaustion. But both the aging process and the act of ceasing to be employed are simply changes - one ongoing, another a bit sudden. How empowering to simply embrace our age, embrace our new circumstances! And happy is the person who reaches into new corners, pokes around new places to find out how they tick. How well we would sleep! How beautifully we'd dream!

My challenge is to remember this metaphor. And I think I might clue a few other folks in . . . .

ITALY, HERE WE COME!

I'm astounded to discover that I haven't posted to my blog since 2011! It's not as though I've been away all that time - in fact, I spend waaaay too much time looking at this computer screen.

Funny thing about blogging: it takes a certain amount of chutzpah to have a strong feeling that anyone (or everyone) is interested in one's thoughts. I guess I just lost that drive to share?

At any rate, here I am. Mike and I are one week away from departure; we're leaving for Florence, Italy, with an OLLI group on June 10. I hope to be able to access my blog while we're away, and plan to use it as a journal of this trip. The last trip we took, a Viking river cruise through the middle Rhine Valley, came and went without my recording a single thought or posting very many pictures. What a waste! I vowed once I returned to not let that happen again.

So, for any of you who are interested, I pledge to record thoughts and impressions as we travel. And to all of you who regard this as an excellent opportunity to back a truck up to my front door and haul away all of our possessions, fair warning: big, strong son and ferocious dog will be in residence the entire time. While that is terrible news for robbers and burglars, it's great for Mike and me. We know the house and the puppy will be well-cared-for.

We plan to climb the 297 steps from the ground to the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. We practiced yesterday by climbing from the Plaza Level of the Capitol building to the 15th floor - 308 steps! Today we have sore calves and thighs, but it was actually really fun. And we now feel as though it's possible for these old bones to be dragged up that tower to enjoy the view.

SO - Italy, here we come! And I'll probably gripe a little bit about packing sometime later this week.

June 3, 2014