Last year, I spent 103 days traveling or away from home. Some travel was to Michigan for weekend getaways, some was family related (my parents moved). Some was the four weddings I posted about. We even traveled for a special birthday party or two. There were weekend visits with friends in Wisconsin and elsewhere in the Midwest that I particularly enjoyed.
We hosted a few house-guests when we weren’t traveling, so that our long-distance socializing came out to 120 days.
In addition, I managed to have a bunch of my things moved from my home and a rented storage space to my office. This was a deed six months in the making that I finally accomplished just before Thanksgiving.
The effects of all this movement have been integrating. By nature, I’m a female cat who seldom prefers to venture from home. In a marriage that’s just four years old, however, my husband and I are still knitting our social circles together. The circles are far-flung, so that takes time.
The surprise is that travel benefits my productivity. When I travel more, I get more done in the remaining time. I focus more on structural tasks and the bare fact of accomplishing. In general, I ruminate less and push harder against the small stuff that used to paralyze me.
It’s a happy development, an answer to the fortune-cookie that once insightfully observed, “Your attention to detail is both a blessing and a curse.” The road to settling in has been quirky indeed.
harley says
Gee, that is quite a number of days to not be at home ! Sounds exhausting to me. I bet you got to see good ol’Hare a few times or more…………I found that traveling in my younger days was soo much easier than it is now for me. However when I do manage to get away-once underway-the trip seems to go rather well. Hope you enjoyed your travels !
Celia says
My main regret is not being able to post much at the end of the year because of the travel. In certain ways I have responded to traveling by being more flexible, which is probably a gain. We are lucky to be able to spare the time to go see our families; I do work on the road, but still, you’re right, getting underway in the first place takes some doing!