TAKE A MOMENT TO ASK YOURSELF WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU WERE BORED!

A series of essays.....

OPENING UP TO A WHOLE NEW WORLD OF POSSIBILITIES ~~~

.....as seen through my eyes!

By: Jacqueline E. Hughes

If our life always felt settled, safe, and warm, as it may have, at some point, back in our youth, then our world would be extremely small, exceptionally limited, and notoriously boring! Fortunately, for many of us, life is anything but boring.

I chuckle to myself as I use the ‘b’ word in conjunction with my thoughts because it tends to be such a harmless and childlike word describing a time when, for several ‘odd’ moments of its waking hours, the youthful mind plays with the art of meditation; it filters out the rest of the world and becomes, blissfully, blank. Being bored is the filler, the chinking between the stacked logs of a less finished structure, that cushions the gap between simply being an innocent child instinctively living for the sake of having fun and trying to make sense of the world that is yet to come.

As young adults, and having lapped that classic, red Radio Flyer many times over, the childhood loop of boredom gives way to new responsibilities with more mature scenarios, making way for higher education, employment, and even the art of falling in love 😍. Work patterns emerge, whether we work from home, an office or cubicle, or out of our own vehicle, we work to get paid in order to pay our bills, raise a family, pay off student loans, play hard....and, eventually, retire with grace and dignity. During this particular phase of life, we can only dream about being bored!

Quite often, mankind meets with obstacles that are unpredictable and life changing. 

Some of us may be struggling with ill health ourselves or, dealing with the illness of a loved one or friend. Naturally, at this point, our focus would be on rectifying this position by any means possible......and, this alone can take up most of our time and energy. This may not be the challenge we had always hoped for in our lives, however, it would be one we must acknowledge, attempt to understand, but never allow losing the fight to be an option. And, if compromise is the ultimate balance negotiator, its important to allow the light to stream in from the tiny cracks that have, inevitably, formed on the exterior and allow it to fill our heart and being with its warmth, its strength, and its love.

If being an adult takes on the responsibilities of life including listening to others, filtering out  good from evil, caring for the health and well-being of those around you, making mature decisions that will help create a healthier, more wholesome world to live in....many adults today have missed the boat on this one. Sadly, this includes a large percentage of the people we’ve elected to govern us in Washington D.C. 

No, I am not taking that course right now. I’m feeling way too good to be pulling myself down into that deep abyss, heaving swamp of depression, deep ocean of lost dreams and acute selfishness, only to find myself adrift upon a sea of uncertainty. Not today!

This morning I’m feeling too good for that because a few nights ago we pushed the ‘ENTER’ button and signed-up for an excursion into two exciting worlds, one yet unknown, Scotland, and the other a continuance of what has proven to be a place we are highly attracted to for many amazing reasons, Ireland. Normally, I am apprehensive about committing so much effort and money into securing airfare for a future trip. (Many of us know how the Internet has made this exceedingly simple to do.) But, not this time. 

My gut tells me this is the right thing to do and this trip promises to be the cherry-on-top of a very busy and eventful year for the two of us. As many of you may know, not only are we remodeling our home in Michigan, but we’re executing a major overhaul of our home here in Orlando with the idea of readying it for resale within the next few months. Timing is everything considering Dan is set to retire in August and it would be nice to have one house 🏡 ready to move into and the other conveniently sold and out of sight and mind. 

Hopefully, we will have sold our property located in North Carolina, as well. Believe me, fingers and toes are crossed with solemn prayers to Saint Joseph said each day for good measure with this one. Survival is having to amputate old dreams yet be strong enough to staunch the flow of life’s blood in order to insure that life can move on. (We’re still having to work a bit on this.)

Moving from one place to another is often grounds for heartache and headaches; having over two thousand miles between the two could turn it into a full-blown migraine in the months to come. We will not be having a company move us back up to Michigan as we did over twenty years ago when we moved down to Orlando from Michigan to follow Dan’s employment opportunities.

I wake each day categorizing our ‘stuff’ and asking myself where this piece might find a new home in our little yellow cottage. Or, explaining to myself the reasons why there’s no way this table will ever fit up there! And, sadly, this third item will just have to be included in our community garage sale in May. Since I like to refurbish things and charm new life into them, many pieces will fit nicely into our new world even if they must be stored for a short time before the new addition is completed on the cottage. 

All of the roads leading us into the immediate future guide us toward a monumental celebration in September; the pièce de résistance, if you will: Travel! While utilizing our purest and most unselfish minds, and sharing an ideology developed and skillfully honed via our personalities coupled with those of our good friends of like philosophy and world views, I predict that this trip is going to be a blast!

 Even though we may be semi-settled, if only in our minds, and safe and warm for the time being, there’s a lot of change happening and each day that goes by reflects upon this fact. Decisions have to be made immediately. There’s no more putting things off until next year because ‘next year’ is here today. It’s time to pull-on our ‘Big Person’ pants 👖 and be open-minded and strong throughout the process, never forgetting to listen to one another along the way. This will help make life considerably easier for both Dan and myself.

So, with all of this to look forward to, for better or for worse, whichever the case may be, there’s one last thing I can think of to say as this year swiftly progresses with each breath I take.....The word ‘boring’ certainly has no room in our lives this year! 2018 promises to be a busy one but, with the added incentive of traveling to Scotland and Ireland dangling like a juicy carrot right before our eyes, we should be just fine.

LIFE IS AN ADVENTURE.....ENJOY EACH MOMENT!

Courtesy: IrishCentral.com

Copyright © 2018 by Jacqueline E. Hughes

All rights reserved

TRAVEL CAN MEAN FINDING YOUR OWN FRENCH COUNTRY BED & BREAKFAST

A series of essays.....

NAVIGATING FRANCE IN 1990 WITH CHARM AND GRACE ~
STILL POSSIBLE TODAY & HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

.....as seen through my eyes!

By: Jacqueline E. Hughes

“Travel makes one modest. You see what a tiny place you occupy in the world.” Quote by Gustave Flaubert, born 12 December 1821, died 8 May 1880. 

If travel makes one modest then, in my humble opinion, travel planning can be a very fulfilling and gratifying experience that allows you to fit nicely within the vast world around you. Planning any trip, whether large or small, is the act of creating the skeletal structure that gives everything its shape, keeps things in place and running as smooth as possible. Good planning is equivalent to the solid outline of your soon to be written story and serves to guide you in the basic direction of theme, plot, and purpose of each character involved.

Where your story (trip) takes you from here, remains unwritten. Your yet to be discovered activities will lead you down small, cobbled streets, country roads, meeting new people who may speak different languages, and your imagination will guide you to just about anywhere you’d like to go; help you to experience just about anything you’d like to experience. What a beautiful thing!

Planning a trip from the beginning to the time you step off of a plane, train, ferry, or any other mode of transportation in order to arrive at your destination, is a challenge I willingly accept. I love it! For me, it’s like designing and building a ‘stick’ house and actually visualizing each separate room even before the sheet rock is installed and room demarcation is formally established. Sometimes, even at such an early point, I can decorate each room with distinct colors and have pictures up on the walls.....especially, if I am comfortable and familiar with whom the rooms are being, figuratively speaking, built for. 

Back in 1990, I recall sitting on the other side of the desk, the back of the computer, a wheezing, beige hulk of perforated plastic, glared at me while the travel agent looked-up the possible flights we could choose from for our first family excursion to Europe. I was frustrated. I knew that, given access to and the proper tools to look up the information on my own, I could do her job with gusto and aplomb. 

Needless to say, that was the last major trip we were required to have to use the services of a travel agent. And, having the tools right in front of me, on the screen of my own computer, worked right into my hands and vivid imagination. I knew that there would always be people and corporations that would require the important services provided by a travel agency. Like many services today, offering the convenience of supplying time and effort into something others do not have time to deal with or, when multiple people are engaged as a group and traveling at the same time, these services will always be a welcomed necessity.

I had the world all to myself! With the eventual added convenience of Websites and most accommodations relying upon a personal Website to advance their establishment’s information, how could I not imagine flirting with all of these worldly facts on my own? Everything was, conveniently, at my fingertips; at my disposal. 

"ALL ILLUSTRATED WITH
PEN-AND-INK SKETCHES"

I recall purchasing one of my first Bed & Breakfast books at the Michigan State University Book Store on Grand River Avenue in East Lansing. It was entitled, “Karen Brown’s French Country Bed & Breakfasts ~ A Travel Guide to the Charming Bed & Breakfasts of France with Descriptions of Over 160 inexpensive Places to Stay,” with a copyright dated 1989. It included small, pen and ink sketches of each property along with the names of the hosts, a short description of the place, directions, and their telephone number. That’s all I needed. 

Even though we required the agent to book our various flights to Munich, London, Dublin, Düsseldorf, and back home, once again...I dug deep into my resources and knowledge of the French language to pull together our twenty-day adventure. 

Knowing I needed to write in English to all of the German establishments I contacted, I truly did make an effort to write to the lovely places we stayed at in France en français which included a romantic manor home in Auxerre, a charming small hotel in the old town center (Centreville) of Strasbourg, and more. In return, I received amazing letters back, written in French and welcoming us to that country with open arms. It was a stimulating and adventurous endeavor on my part to make this all come together and work for us as a family. Eventually, our experiences in Europe were worth every word written and each agonizing week it took to hear back from the individual hosts in response to my inquiry.

The skeleton was established and the layers of work that compiled the ‘who, what, where’ and meat of this project began to form and take on a shape that was very satisfying and pleasantly doable. 

This inaugural trip to Europe in 1990 was a huge success for us. Since that time, I’ve put together quite a few visits back to different areas of France, several trips along the Wild Atlantic Way and the West Coast of Ireland, and I am in the midst of planning a brand new trip to Scotland, Wales, and Ireland scheduled for 2018. Dan and I will be traveling with our good friends and, coupled with the excitement of putting together some incredible memories along the way, writing about our adventures is something I am very much looking forward to!

Honoring a ‘right of passage,’ otherwise known as formal retirement, we will be like four ships passing through the territorial seas of foreign states and straits used for international navigation. Only our ship will be rental cars, mainly, with a ferry boat thrown in for good measure between Holyhead in Wales, U.K. and Dublin, Ireland!

As a travel writer today, I have to say that it’s with pure joy that I am fortunate enough to experience so many different places, points of interest, historical revelations, and innumerable local traditions. I believe that by listening to the lilt of a foreign language or a particular vernacular, the experience will sweep you into a different world; a new dimension in time and space. 

WISHING ALL A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS
AND A HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS
NEW YEAR IN 2018!!!

Copyright © 2017 by Jacqueline E. Hughes

All rights reserved