Yesterday was a busy day. I finally managed to get out notwithstanding snow, ice, bad roads, and illness. Katherine and I went to the passport office to submit my application for my renewal. Then we went to Willow Park Wines and Spirits, a store which I have wanted to visit for some time. It wasn't as good as my own favourite liquor store here in Calgary, Crowfoot Liquors. After that we went to see the new Star Wars movie, Rogue One, and finally ended up in Chapters where I picked up a couple of books to read.
It was the passport which was the most significant thing from yesterday. They punched holes in my old passport and returned it to me. This morning I picked it up and perused it, looking at the stamps from various places I have had the good fortune to visit. I walked through the pages, while in my mind I walked through some of the wonderful adventures I have had in my life, both before and after ALS. Before ALS, it was mostly work. After ALS, it was all adventure, that one last great travel.
That's one of the things which struck me. There are a great many stamps from London, Frankfurt, the UAE, all before November 22, 2012. Then, after that inauspicious date, there are but a few. Yet those few, the ones from traveling to Europe, traveling to Cuba, and even one from the US, all mean a great deal to me. These were very special voyages, take after my diagnosis, taken as my "last trips". I look on those with such fondness, even more fondness than my many adventures before ALS. After my diagnosis, each voyage, each adventure, has taken on special meaning, to be savoured all the more because of the poignancy of circumstance.
I will travel yet again. I will have more adventures. My friend David is taking me on a three week road trip starting in early February. Katherine and I are trying to arrange another adventure, this time a cruise. Yet still, it is the trips in the past I dwell on, the nostalgia of things done when I knew I might not do them again. There are stamps in my passport which will not be repeated. There are new stamps to collect, and I am going to do my damnedness to collect them. Not all adventure lies in the past.
Can we help? I still have those delta miles
ReplyDeleteThat is so kind of you! If we can arrange the cruise, we will need to fly from Vancouver to Buenos Ares. Who knows? That might help.
DeleteI may not have enough for that, but I'll share what I have.
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