Europe Trip #2 - July 2, 2022 - Boundaries

As we spend two hours waiting at the Genoa airport, I’m reminded of another lesson of travel. We each have our points of tension and anxiety that we will work to avoid.

At least for now, while traveling as a group of five, trying to respect the various personalities and needs, I will go a long way to avoid having to rush. I prefer to sit at the airport and eat mediocre food rather than be sprinting to our gate at the last minute.

For one thing, I don’t really “sprint.”

For another, my ducklings don’t do well with quick changes and insecurity. They handle it when they need to, but the emotional fallout can be extensive. Certainly I don’t care for sudden rushes of anxiety either.

I woke up at 12:30 this morning, sure that we had forgotten to reserve our apartment in Regensburg. When I checked the booking app, sure enough it wasn’t there. I broke into a sweat and the unemotional part of my brain thought, “Oh, this is what fear smells like.”

We had reserved the apartment. All is well with the next stage of the journey, and even if it hadn’t been, we would have created a new plan, BUT, that rapid heart rate, stench of fear, and the anxiety, I do not care for those feelings at all.

So, here we sit, several hours early, especially now that the flight is delayed by an hour. I cannot mourn the loss of the time at the agritourismo because I would not have been able to savor it.

Knowing your needs and adjusting to them, that’s part of the joy of travel.