Lucky to have been where I have been
“Off on another trip? You’re so lucky to travel as much as you do... I wish that I could travel too.” I’ve been having this conversation several times lately. It’s an echo of one I had with a former, now deceased, colleague many years ago. She was talking about a planned trip somewhere off the beaten track, and I said almost the same words to her. Her reply stuck with me since then, even though we were never friends. She said, “you have leave available to you, and you have a steady income. You can choose to travel if that’s important to you.” At the time, I said that I couldn’t because I had obligations, that I didn’t have anyone who would travel with me, and I had a long list of excuses as to why not. My colleague pointed out that I had the choice to do what was important to me. That was a slow-dawning revelation, which was reinforced by several elders who stressed the importance of self care. One of the things that I had to learn was how to balance my training on work and