Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas

Life is a journey that must be traveled no matter how bad the roads and accommodations. Oliver Goldsmith

We can make plans but all they ever are, are plans unless we actually do something. Last night was our time to book the flight, places to stay, and car rental for our trip to British Columbia and Alberta. I keep adding people to see and my daughter is asking when will we get to relax. The answer is probably when we get home. We should have made our plans a little earlier we would have had more choice in accommodations, but I think what we’ve booked looks pretty good.

The more people involved in a trip the more complicated it becomes but all the pieces seem to be coming together nicely. For seasoned travelers what we did last night wouldn’t seem like much, but it took us all night to book the flight, places to stay, and the last thing was the car rental when the site we were booking through had a problem. We had the vehicle booked through a site and then when we saw the price they confirmed in the email it had been quoted in American dollars and converted to Canadian dollars, thus much higher than we thought. Was this our mistake or a shady site?

We need to be careful we don’t blame others for our mistakes but we also need to be aware that there are those out there looking to take advantage. There is a buffet of things we can choose in life and yet many of us seem hesitant to define our choices. Can we have what we want, but we have to know what that is? Why is it hard to know what we want, we have to be careful about wanting things but never actually getting around to making them happen.

Travel is something I’ve never gotten around to making happen. That trip to Europe is now in the planning stages, but will only be to London and Paris. A friend and I have been going to travel since we were in high school, maybe we will travel together as seniors, and enjoy and appreciate it all the more for all the life that has happened.  Has anyone managed to fit everything into their life and had everything work out just like they hoped and planned? Does serendipity work in our lives, and even if we don’t get what we planned, we love what we got, and still hope to realize dreams that haven’t happened yet?

Life is short and we have never too much time for gladdening the hearts of those who are traveling the dark journey with us. Oh be swift to love, make haste to be kind. Henri Frederic Amiel

I have a friend sending me links to things we should consider for our trip to England and Paris. Planning is part of the fun, and I wonder if a surprise trip would be as wonderful as the anticipation of planning one.

When we have a goal and set a date things happen. When we have a wish without a plan it can remain a wish throughout our lives without any movement toward what isn’t actually a goal yet.

Life has strange ways, I was looking at a book, and a woman dreamed of a house and found herself living in a house exactly as she had dreamed, but she didn’t own it. She said next time when she dreamed of a house, part of the dream would be to own it.

Are we specific enough in our dreams, do we worry about things, and get our fears instead of our dreams? Focusing on what we want, instead of what we don’t want can sound easy, but in reality how often do we think about the things we don’t want? Sometimes we hear people talk about challenges they had in their life they would never have asked for, that have given them a better and bigger life than had they gotten what they wanted.

No matter how life unfolds do we need to be willing to make the best of it? It seems to me those who can deal with the slings and arrows of life with grace and dignity are who we admire. We don’t admire those who haven’t faced challenges, who didn’t pick up a load, and who didn’t do something that was hard to do.

If we can truly say we’ve tried to make the best of what came our way in life we will feel good about the life we’ve lived. No one gets to live our lives, and we don’t get to live anyone else’s. We are each on our own journey and making the best of it will look different for each person, and our lessons will not be someone else’s lessons. Can we live and let live because we are all on a journey?

You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending. C.S Lewis

Have faith in your journey. Everything had to happen exactly as it did to get you where you’re going next! Mandy Hale

The only impossible journey is the one you never begin. Tony Robbins

Thank you for reading this post. Please come back and read some more. Have a blessed day filled with gratitude, joy, and love.