To My Child
"You are the trip I did not take;
You are the pearls I cannot buy;
You are my blue Italian Lake;
You are my piece of foreign sky"
Author: Anne Campbell
This is one of my favorite mother's days poems. It fits my own life so well.
Traveling has always been something I have enjoyed -- not the packing or unpacking but the experiences and enjoyment of the trip itself.
I am grateful I had the chance to travel a bit before my husband and I married and had children.
When the children were young, I used to wonder if I'd ever travel again. We did travel but it was usually to the homes of our parents. There never seemed to be time or money enough to actually travel beyond our comfort zones.
After we were married for a dozen years, we had the opportunity to live in Europe for a while on a work assignment for my husband.
Living abroad presented some challenges -- mostly the day-to-day types such as communicating with our limited language skills.
Those years in Germany were wonderful. Our world expanded as we visited various places not only in Germany but other countries as well.
We visited some of the great cities of Europe -- London, Amsterdam, Madrid, and Paris.
We also visited some places which were significant to us personally or because they were ancestral homes.
There were never enough traveling adventures in my opinion. Too bad my husband had to work!
As the years pass, those memories of traveling with my family remain treasured ones.
Our world expanded through new friends, cuisine, and places. These are memories which have enriched our lives.
The children and I learned how to use the buses, subways, and trains as we explored Bonn and Cologne together. These skills proved useful to our son when he served his mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints ten years later.
On one vacation, we drove from our home in Germany to Spain. As we drove through the Spanish countryside, we saw bulls standing under magnificent trees which reminded us of "The Story of Ferdinand" by Munro Leaf. Suddenly the illustrations of that classic children's story came to life.
We saw the beautiful Mediterranean Sea at the beginning of our journey and the gray and fierce Atlantic Ocean on our way home.
Our German friends thought we were a little odd to drive those long twelve hours from Germany to Barcelona but to us it was all an adventure. Besides we were used to spending twelve hours in the car together for the trips to my parents house and never left our home state of Michigan.
We learned that zoos and aquariums were good choices on the local holidays because the other tourist sites were closed.
Language skills could be encouraged by reading the various signs for the animals. We might not have understood the local languages but the animals didn't mind at all. It was common to hear families talking to one another in a variety of different languages so visiting the zoo was truly an international experience.
Of course, even today, there are places I would still like to visit. The list is long and probably not possible to fulfill. I may never travel to some of the places I really want to see or those places I want to re-visit but it's alright.
My husband and children remain a great source of joy to me. I feel grateful for the blessings they have brought into my life.
