I've long loved the quote by Lao Tzu, "A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving." I'm not a planner. I'm a wing-it kind of traveler and person. One of the interesting experiences of traveling without goals or an agenda, like we are right now, is how contrary it feels to American culture, and how 'upstream-swimming' it feels to the way of life many of us are taught to embrace.
One of my greeting card designs.
We're wired to accomplish things each day. We are not wired to "live" each moment for the sake of being alive and simply breathing in and out and taking each moment as it comes. We are wired to get things done; to check things off our proverbial lists. We are doers. We like being busy, even if we also complain. Life's meaning is directly tied to how much doing we do.
Living quietly and slowly enough to wake up and simply be in the moment, though quoted often as something to which we should aspire, often fails to appeal to us in reality. A day off is filled with running errands, cleaning house, remodeling, and 'catching up' in all that it means to us individually. It would not seem right or natural to wake up and just have a day of life in front of us without a to do list. If we do get through a day like that, many will feel like it was wasted. The once in a blue moon day of doing nothing (which even the wording itself conjures up negativity) can be cherished, but only if it is remains 'once in a blue moon' and not common practice.
Living quietly and slowly enough to wake up and simply be in the moment, though quoted often as something to which we should aspire, often fails to appeal to us in reality. A day off is filled with running errands, cleaning house, remodeling, and 'catching up' in all that it means to us individually. It would not seem right or natural to wake up and just have a day of life in front of us without a to do list. If we do get through a day like that, many will feel like it was wasted. The once in a blue moon day of doing nothing (which even the wording itself conjures up negativity) can be cherished, but only if it is remains 'once in a blue moon' and not common practice.
Battery Point Lighthouse, in Crescent City, CA is one of the first nine lighthouses in the United States.
Life these days for me is not filled with much more than moments in time. I'm trying to value conversations with my mother because she is close to her expiration date. Time is as precious as it is precarious. I don't want to be too busy to listen. Or too tired. I want to be present. It's not always easy. This woman is nearly a century old library of memories, experiences, and observations. When she's gone, that library of first editions closes forever.
Traveling the way I am with my mother is not to be confused with, or even compared to, being on vacation. Rather it is our way of life right now. My mother, at 96, remarkably has a strong mind with a memory that still could beat out the average 30 year old. She is still learning and still finds life has value. But her body is failing her. Her eyesight began to really fade three years ago following an accident where she'd been wheeled into a van and not secured inside, and the wheelchair rolled backwards down the van's ramp and slammed her into the cement. She whiplashed her head onto the pavement and broke three bones in her pelvis region. We will never know if the accident caused damage to her vision or not, but it was the demarcation line between very decent sight to very limited sight.
She has macular degeneration, but at that time, it had not interrupted her ability to read -- at all. She was devouring a stack of library books ten inches high every week to two weeks. As her vision went, she had to switch to audio books.
Then a year ago, her vision took an even more dramatic plunge toward sightlessness. She can see shapes, and colors, and has a strong memory of sight, so she can fill in the blanks when she's looking at something. She can also fill in the blanks in ways that are funny and far from being what she is seeing. It's not the kind of vision that can be improved with stronger glasses, or the best of the best magnifiers or more light. Light can be very irritating, so she often wears sunglasses, even indoors.
Her balance has been greatly affected by neuropathy that we now believe was the side effect of taking an antibiotic called Cipro. Her feet began going numb a decade or more ago from the nerve damage of neuropathy. It's why she stopped driving when she turned 90. She didn't feel like she could "feel" her pressure correctly on the gas pedal or brake.
Add to that, the stiffness and limitations that come from surgery after a broken hip. She needs help dressing and putting on socks and shoes. She needs a constant spotter when standing and walking. While she's made a remarkable recovery, and I credit my daughter with being there every step of the way -- literally and figuratively -- she lost a lot of independence when she broke her hip.
Our RV travels provide a small way to maximize a life so limited by sight and balance (and lack of energy), as well as maximizing mine as a full-time caretaker. A big down side is how much effort it takes to be on the move. Add to that, dealing with torrential rain for days on end. Life is definitely not uninteresting.
She has macular degeneration, but at that time, it had not interrupted her ability to read -- at all. She was devouring a stack of library books ten inches high every week to two weeks. As her vision went, she had to switch to audio books.
Then a year ago, her vision took an even more dramatic plunge toward sightlessness. She can see shapes, and colors, and has a strong memory of sight, so she can fill in the blanks when she's looking at something. She can also fill in the blanks in ways that are funny and far from being what she is seeing. It's not the kind of vision that can be improved with stronger glasses, or the best of the best magnifiers or more light. Light can be very irritating, so she often wears sunglasses, even indoors.
Her balance has been greatly affected by neuropathy that we now believe was the side effect of taking an antibiotic called Cipro. Her feet began going numb a decade or more ago from the nerve damage of neuropathy. It's why she stopped driving when she turned 90. She didn't feel like she could "feel" her pressure correctly on the gas pedal or brake.
Add to that, the stiffness and limitations that come from surgery after a broken hip. She needs help dressing and putting on socks and shoes. She needs a constant spotter when standing and walking. While she's made a remarkable recovery, and I credit my daughter with being there every step of the way -- literally and figuratively -- she lost a lot of independence when she broke her hip.
Our RV travels provide a small way to maximize a life so limited by sight and balance (and lack of energy), as well as maximizing mine as a full-time caretaker. A big down side is how much effort it takes to be on the move. Add to that, dealing with torrential rain for days on end. Life is definitely not uninteresting.
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