I wanna go home!
Kevin & I are sitting in the Kamloops MacDonalds…free WiFi is the big attraction here. That, and the cheap coffee.
Due to avalanche concerns on all three major routes to the Coast, we are now officially cut off from Vancouver. The latest report suggests that the Coquihalla highway could open some time between noon and six p.m. Kind of sounds like the rather loose time frame that delivery guys like to give.
It’s not like we’re doctors who are needed for crucial surgery. There are no life-or-death reasons that makes it imperative that we get back. The only difference between today, and the last nine days of travel, is that we both had it in our heads that we’d have been home last night.
In our own bed. On our own terms. Starting a regular day.
Instead, we spent it in a cheap motel in Kamloops. This was not one of those nights I willingly wanted to add to my cumulative nights-away list.
What is it about wanting what you can’t have?
So I started thinking about the difference between traveling under my own agenda versus external circumstances foisted upon me.
But everyone knows that change is exactly what travel (and life) is all about; planes are late, a bus breaks down, the inn has no room.
Shit, in other words, happens.
Then I thought about all those people in the world who can’t get home…ever.
Refugees who wait and wait out their lives, constantly hoping to get back to a land that they may never see. If they’re lucky, they’ll spend that time in a purgatorial hellhole called a refugee camp. In 2011 it was estimated that around 15.2 million people were displaced.
You know what they say about perspective right? The first commandment of travel, or life, is to get some.
Take the big view. Step back. Change your point of view.
I still wish I could go home. But I am one of the lucky ones because I have a home.
We’ll get there. Maybe not today but soon enough. Sooner than most…
I am feeling rather blessed.
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I was wondering about you earlier in the week, suspecting you might be caught in this winter chaos. Then I got your blog. Great introspection. The Road has given you a moment to think about Life and the Gifts in unexpected places.
On another note, however did you get the church photo? Did Jesus help with the lighting? Has he created some kind of brilliant technology that merges with photos for Holy Lighting effect? Well done.
Happy/Safe Trails, look forward to meeting you in my hood, where I may have seen the beginnings of cherry blossoms this morning (I don’t think I was halucinating.)
Hi Elinor…it is true that the road presented a new view of the world 🙂
I wish I could claim Holy intervention on the church lighting…but instead, I must confess that though I took the picture in Field, Alberta, the effects were done by running it through Pixlr.com. Glad you liked it.
I don’t doubt the cherry blossoms, though the weather forecast suggests they may be short-lived. See you soon!
Such a great thing to remember. Hope you do get home safe eventually!
Thanks Carly. We’re driving to Merritt now and will try waiting there for a change of scenery 🙂
I have a deeper appreciation for that well-worn cliche of, so near and yet so far!