Not Planning Leads to Lessons Learned

I woke before the alarm this morning and looked out and it was snowing. I immediately had two oops kind of thoughts.

First - Do you know yourself at all girl, or what? All this observation about my natural bio-rhythms may be my way of just letting myself stay in bed until after 8am. Here it was before 6am mountain time, which would have been even earlier in Central or Eastern time and I was waking up rested. I don't know if I know me or excuse me.

Second - Damn. I should have listened to Earle (old boss) or at least checked weather.com. I am so totally packed wrong for this trip. I needed boots, sweaters and sweatshirts instead of 3/4 length sleeves, shorts and black flats. Some people spend weeks planning, looking at maps, knowing what they are going to see, and here I just get into a car, get onto a plane or whatever and figure I will decide once I get there. I think for the most part this has worked well for me, but why am I having this nagging feeling that maybe it could have worked differently if I had planned.

As I think back on all of the trips I have taken - I can't think of any where I had an agenda for the trip. Just a general place to go, and knowing what was there to see, but then just going and winging it. Some of my fondest memories are the trips I took with the kids. Inevitably we would get lost, we'd go down the wrong road and either miraculously find the right road, turn around or stop and ask directions. I used to tell them that traveling with me was an adventure because you never knew what you were going to see or do. I am not sure they bought it at the time - but I would like to think that I encouraged a bit of their current spirits.

Some of the memories flooding back to me right now and making my eyes fill with tears of love and joy are:

* Camping at Yankee Springs with Aunt Mary and the Cook kids (it was Aunt Mary that told me it was okay for you to go off on your own and that I didn't need to follow you everywhere.)

* Summers in Traverse City with the Browns and Francis's (I learned that we could be a family with just me and the kids and fit in. And I also learned that adults could have a beer in the afternoon while the kids were playing together in Lake Michigan)

* Tent camping with Charlie May and his family at Pioneer Park (I learned that family can be many things and can be inclusive of many people - you don't need to be related by blood. I also learned that when it rains during the night and soaks through the tent and sleeping bags, you unstake it, flip it over, hang the bags out to dry, go to the beach and come back and your 'family' has taken care of you)

* Maine adventure with the boys (I learned that not everyone wants to see lighthouses - and I learned that I cannot control their interactions with each other and that the best part about parenting teenage boys was to sit back, watch and learn)

* Mackinac Island with the kids - (I learned that a spontaneous picnic of bike riding along that island and deli-sandwiches was better than a 5 course meal when you are sitting on rocks with the sun on your face and wind in your hair and I learned that family relationships go up and down, but we are still related)

* Europe with Alissa - (I learned that when you throw coins in the fountain, you can return and that my daughter had an engaging personality that others along the trip tapped into)

* Chicago with the kids - (One of the first times we ate at an outside cafe together after walking all afternoon. I learned that some of the best sites are not those listed in the tourist guide, but the ones you find on your own)

As I sit here thinking and reminiscing, that song that I loved the other day keeps running through my head again....I have been blessed.