Sitting on My Luggage Today – Literally This Time

I wrote awhile ago about the ritual of “sitting in your luggage”. I was speaking metaphorically at the time about preparing for a new career journey in my life. Well today I’m about to sit on it literally. Cam and I are leaving today for a 5 day trip to Mexico. We are celebrating our 25th year of marriage. It has been over 20 years since just the two of us have taken a trip that wasn’t either work related or involved visiting family that is scattered through out the country. Our objective for this trip is to just relax and enjoy each other’s company without any other agenda.

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Although the trunk you see will not be our luggage for this journey, it is a place I sit when I stop and pause before I leave on a trip. It is the trunk of my Great Uncle Fritz Carlson, my Grandpa Ivar Carlson’s brother. This is the trunk he carried his stuff in when he came to America about 100 years ago. He and Grandpa Ivar were carpenters. Ivar married my Grandma Elsa who also was born in Sweden and became a nurse here in America. It is a historical place for me to sit, in fact a spiritual place.

I am still unwinding from the great retirement celebration we had the other night. And time to pause, sit, reflect and “spiritually defibrillate” is an important exercise I need prior to this long anticipated time alone with Cam. So I won’t be posting anything on this site for the next several days, but when I get back I’ll be refreshed and recharged and ready to start this next exciting phase of my life.