By Mary Duggan
It’s time to travel and so I am trying to tamp down my anxiety levels. I wish I was a carefree traveler. I wish I could look forward to leaving town. I wish I didn’t worry so much about the airlines and the clothes and the supplements and the dietary changes and the itsy bitsy personal care products. I wish I wasn’t one to get my undies in such a big bundle. But I am. And I have decided to be proud of it.
Here’s the thing. What am I saying, really? I am declaring my love of the routine that is my life. I like waking up in my own worn out bed. I like knowing exactly where my morning thyroid pill is and that I can take it each day without actually being awake. I like knowing how my coffee is going to taste and I like knowing that it is Organic and Fair Trade and made with filtered water and sipped from my favorite mug. I relish my newspaper ritual, putting aside the ads and the sports page, and prioritizing the other sections in the order I like to read them: business before arts. I like my life, even when my horoscope looks less than sunny.
This is my favorite coffee mug – even though I got it while – yep, traveling.
I like the way the windows are placed in the walls of my home. In the morning, I sit facing the East and the sun rise. In the early evening, I sit facing the West and Diane Sawyer. I like TV, actually, and look forward to my favorite shows. I like watching my neighbors coming and going each day; and I know how to dress watching what they have worn out the door before me.
I like the way my days sound. On the work days, it is the tearing of the tape gun as packages get prepped for shipment in the family business below me. I like listening in on my sisters’ friendly prattle with the UPS guy or the postie. As conversations rise through the heating vents, I monitor the calls and conflicts and orders and ideas of the business flowing below me. And on the weekend, I love the sound of the basement becoming home again with the banging and clanging of the washer and dryer and vacuum.
I like hearing who the dog encountered on his walk and if anything of note happened at the grocery store. I like knowing right around lunchtime what’s on the menu for dinner and I like anyone offering to put the kettle on for tea. I like to be served a cup of tea. It tastes better that way. And I only like a glass of wine if someone else in the room is sipping beside me. And I love a good wrap-up. What has happened in the four hours since I saw you last? Don’t leave anything out.
I like a day when nothing in particular is going to happen and no one that matters is coming by. I like wearing my most worn out clothes and falling into bed wearing the absolute worst pajamas. And having just enough stamina left to give my oldest cat his nightly face massage before I read two pages in my Kindle struggling all the while to keep my eyes open and then hey, it’s morning light again. Another day. More of the routine I love.
When it’s time to trade all that for adventure, fresh sights, glorious weather, a change of pace, a healthy renewal I really have to stop worrying that it is going to wreak havoc with my bowel function and just surrender to the necessity to go new places and try new things. Sometimes I just have to travel or as my Grandma Liz used to say, “I have to keep moving before the trigger-mortis sets in.”
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About the author:
Mary Duggan is Co-Founder and President of the Duggan Sisters
The Duggan Sisters cracked the code and created a natural deodorant that actually works: lifestinks. And that was just the beginning. We hope you will spend a few minutes exploring duggansisters.com to experience their spirited approach to wellness through their natural products and healing stories.
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I resemble this blog—want to travel, truly just “be there” and yet have to do something to get there!
I found aromatherapy helps on the journey – a small spray bottle (or two) with lavender or wild orange or Frankincense (an expensive one). I spritz as many times/day as I need.
Have fun – may the sun shine on your travels.
Mar – what a great idea. Translation: OMG, I hope I don’t forget my calming oil spray!!! Hopeless in Chicago?
Oh, the vexation of travel! I know it well, and yet I’ve traveled a fair amount for writing conferences (to say nothing of the multiple trips last year alone between NY & FL). There is almost always a point where I ask myself if it wouldn’t really just be better to stay home.
So I truly enjoyed making a little trip through Dugganland with you. Looking out your windows, listening to the changing sounds of the house, contemplating that cup of tea. It’s a good thing when writing can be both exploratory and comforting. A real pleasure to read.
Carlen, I know you too are a nester – a surround yourself with particular lovelies and rituals that soothe on a daily basis. But then we need and want to travel, too. Do men ever agonize over travel the way we do? I have to wonder. Hugs, Mary
Mary, I am the same way when it comes to travel! In fact, I just got back from a trip to VA for an NILD conference, and as I was getting ready to go, I fretted over all the usual things we gf girls fret over…packing all my vitamins and supplements, the little snacks to keep me going, etc. But as always, once I got there, I was able to just relax and enjoy. And on the plane ride home, I met some really incredible people, who shared their stories with me, and blessed me beyond measure! So it is worth all the little worries and inconveniences to have made those connections. I pray that your travels will hold the same possibilities….that you’ll hear some incredible, enriching stories, and get to share a piece of YOURself with some other lucky travelers! Bon voyage! ; )
Dear Kathy,
What a wonderful note. And yes g-f makes it all so much more challenging. I can’t believe we actually travel with enormous gallon jugs stuffed with chopped greens and fruit that we blend into our daily green smoothies when we arrive. Crazy, I know – but we Duggan girls just can’t work hard on the horrible standard hotel fare. This morning the girls spent boatloads of time setting up their supplements for the week. I still have to do mine.
I do know what you mean though. It is always worth it in the end. And the wonderful re-charging of the batteries, and new friends made, and memories, as they say, to last a lifetime. I know we will have a tremendous time; and I know I will go through all the same anguish before the next trip.
Thanks for the well-wishing. Hope there is our next cousins event SOON! And p.s. what is NILD? Just curious. Mary