Labor Day Weekend 2001

Strange to be home. The rooms are spread out with many steps between things but  I will get used to it again.

I called my son and daughter, relatives, and friends.  Unpacked, did some laundry,  picked up my mail and went through it.   Then I went off to school to set up my classroom.  I had a lot to do but  I took a deep breath and tired not to get discouraged.  This was part of the the plan, to really concentrate my effort in a short amount of time.  It was a small price to pay for having an almost  infinite vacation.

My journey had become a personal odyssey, a search for answers, a time to be alone and think. I sat down with my journal, eighty pages of pouring out my heart under the stars and unraveling mistakes and regrets in the shadows of beautiful mountains. I flipped through the pages, reading what I had written and realized what  whiner I am.  My thoughts had been filled with so many worries and complaints.  It was at this moment, staring down at my pen and pencil scribbles, that I learned the lesson I had traveled so far to discover. It was a subtle truth but a very powerful one. It is simply to enjoy each day, each moment and not worry about all the bad things that may or may not happen. Through my whole trip I worried that my van might break down, that something was wrong with the tires, or I had ruined the brakes when I had gone down the steep mountain. It was foolish because nothing happened. My vacation would have been much more enjoyable if I hadn’t brought my anxiety with me.

I found out that  I will be an inclusion teacher this year, something I have never done before. I’m also the new president of my local Toastmasters’ International. Again, something I have never done before. I’m not going to worry about any of it!