Fragments From Floyd

Our two kids live a total of some five thousand miles away from us, both together. I'd always imagined (at least very early in child-rearing) that we'd have a tight little nucleus--living far enough away from our grown children not to be obnoxious but close enough to visit every couple of weeks. Maybe we'd even see the grandkids grow up close by.

But one's in South Dakota, the other, British Columbia. There is some small consolation in the fact that both have chosen places we'd love to visit; and son or daughter can serve as our tour guide on the very infrequent chances we do get to travel to see them. We saw the plains of Dakota last August. This will be our first to Vancouver, and I am really looking forward (if not to getting there) to being there for a few days in mid-May.

Our plans are just taking shape. I know we're planning on at least two days at a retreat on Bowen Island (hello Chris Corrigan!) and maybe we'll sit in on some classes or lectures at our son's school (Regent College) and I'm certain we'll eat food we can't get in Floyd. (Yes, there are a few ethnic groups not represented here.) And I will take copious photographs, many notes of impressions for future blogging and other writing, and enjoy total immersion in being the different someone I will become in a different somewhere--the altered stated of travel. And I'll feel the conflict of loving other places while longing to be home.