Traveling and life lessons

When one is young, one does not have the money to travel. When one is an adult, one is too busy earning a living to travel.

When one is retired, one has the time and the money, but not the strength to travel I love to travel and I travel a lot although I'm not in the travel

business. As I was writing this article, I made a count and was surprised at the extent of my travels. I love to watch travel shows on TV. My favorite is BBC's "Lonely Planet" with Ian

Wright. I tell my friends I would rather spend on traveling than on the house. A house is static while traveling is dynamic. And isn't life that way?

Life is a journey. It moves on from one moment to another. We can not freeze nor capture one moment forever. Life brings about changes and transitions. We adapt from one situation to

another, one stage to another. Life is discovery of better things. It is opening up to new horizons. Life is also finding out what remains to be valuable and important. It is appreciating what is

constant amidst what is transient. From my travels I learned more about life. They have taught me to reflect on basic things about life. Things such as…Health, wealth and time In a trip that took us almost a month, we traveled with an

Australian couple who brought pillows and a blanket to the coach. Mrs. Richards wore a wig and her face looked bloated. She had suffered from cancer and the effects of intensive chemotherapy were evident. She had to take a cocktail of

medicines at regular times. She also breathed with difficulty. With her swollen feet, she could not walk far, and would wait in the couch while the rest of the group did the walking tours. Her husband was always at her side assisting her and doing things

for her.

Looking at them, it was rather a pathetic sight; yet at the same time it was a picture of hope. My family sat with them during a meal and got to know them better. There was undeniably great love between them. But they knew time was running out. Mr. Richards told us that he had taken an indefinite leave of

absence to bring his wife around the world. Immediately after that European tour, they would join another Mediterranean cruise. On the one hand, I admired their positive way of coping with crisis, but on the other hand, I really wondered how much they were enjoying the hectic travels. Still it looked better than

staying home and brood.

The problem about traveling, as in life, is this: when one is in his youth, he is healthy and strong to travel, but has not enough money to do so. When one is established in his business, he cannot afford the time to enjoy. When one is retired, he has the money to spend and the time to travel, but may be too weak or

too sick to enjoy traveling. Many times in life, health, wealth, and time do not coincide. When you have a reasonable amount of these, better make the most of them.Possessions and more possessions In a recent trip, we met a couple who spoke English in a strong accent. They were in their seventies; Joe was from Hungary and

Rose, from Czechoslovakia, and both migrated to Canada some 40 years ago. Taking our dinner together one night, everyone was talking about what each had bought-Lladro ceramics, pashmina shawls, black gold, etc., I asked the couple how the shopping was for them. Joe said in his booming baritone voice, "You are still young. Enjoy and buy things. We are old…we are

now busy disposing things."

That answer stopped me for a while and I thought, how true. People keep on acquiring things-never thinking it would take another while to dispose of them. Some travelers are obsessed with particular things-it could be art works, shoes, icons-and would not know when to be contented and where to contain the possessions. This problem faces you immediately in a coach

tour when you can not squeeze your newly acquired possessions in your allowance of one baggage only.

Structure and freedom

Of the trips we took, many were taken with Insight Tours, a British company. If the reader has taken any international packaged tour, he would understand how regimented the schedules are. With a group of nearly 50 people in most of these trips, one cannot afford to be late at any juncture of the program. I would recommend such tours not only for value for money, but all the conveniences of arranged food and lodging,

optional tours and transportation, and a knowledgeable,competent tour director who speaks some four languages. If traveling on our own, we would easily take our time to wake up, start the day late, get lost sometimes, "argue" where to go or eat, and how to get there. One does not want to decide on everything during vacation. With the tour director who seems to know what is the best time to do what, where to eat, how to

save time, what not to miss, you know time is maximized to the fullest.

Some travelers may feel too restricted with fixed schedules, but structure does help to accomplish much. With a ceiling on your freedom, you will make the most of the free time and get your personal priorities in order. Some external controls can regulate your internal discipline-in a trip, as much as in a society. The mutual respect for other people's time can make a large group of adults and kids quite cooperative. We have not had the

unfortunate experience of being in a group where time was not strictly observed. Literally and figuratively, if you want to go places, you need to be disciplined.

Family togetherness

My husband and I brought along our kids to almost all the vacation trips we had taken, as most Filipino families we met did. They were real troupers. On one occasion, a fellow traveler made a rousing farewell speech and to our surprise, mentioned how behaved our kids were, and added to say it must be credited to the parents-an unexpected compliment to my inadequate parenting skills. We received such compliments quite frequently though in less dramatic fashion. Many alsocommented how important this kind of education and exposure

was, and that they should have done it more often with their own kids. Some expressed regret, however, because they had missed the period when their children were children and when they could afford time for vacation. When traveling hundreds and thousands of miles with your family, a foreign land could be still a home (very unlike the times when you traveled alone and were always looking at the watch to call home). When you were with your family 24 hours a day, and making memories together, the shared experience everyday served as springboard for discussion and teaching, at a more

personal, yet, universal level. In the coach with my children seated just a row in front of us chatting and laughing, and with my husband by my side studying the map, I felt safe, secure, complete, and at peace. I looked out the window, and without a care in the world, I thought, "How beautiful is the world, and how wonderful is God's grace."Once in the French Riviera, my family was taking dinner in a glass restaurant by the window seat that looked out to the shore. As usual, the kids were chatting in animation as my husband and I listened, when an English gentleman approached us. We were quite surprised when he said he had been

observing us for some time. He commented that these days it was rare to see families talking and enjoying dinners together. He then congratulated us sincerely and walked away, alone. Years after today, the mental snapshot of that moment still lingered.

Learning from books and experiences

A journey begins with much preparation and study. For our

travels, my husband and I studies brochures seriously,

compared prices and details, and finally made a decision out of

many options and possibilities. Once decided, I read the history

of each country of destination and made notes of important

names, learned about the current government, cultural life and

educational system, and research on stories of interest. It is

only when you have some prior kno