Travelling home for Christmas

I am going to England for Christmas, I will be gone for 10 days.

Its been an interesting end to the year with so much happening on every side, travelling, meeting new people and lots of new experiences. With so much going on back here, I thought it was important to make some goals for my time back at home with my family. Sometimes when I go there, I think a lot about the Café and I sort of don’t give my family as much attention as I could. On some trips I have been so beset by worry that I have spent much of the time there looking on the computer at CE and checking my messages. I always feel I have to be on call and ready to jump to help if there is any problem. So far on every trip away, no one has died.. Living by the principle of living in the moment, I will be trying on this trip to enjoy every second with my family.

I left home when I was 15, since then I have hardly seen my parents and brothers and sisters, let alone the extended family of cousins and other relatives. When I stop to think about that amount of time, 10 years is a long time to be gone. So much has happened to me in 10 years, I am not surprised that we sometimes feel distant. I want to be as close to my family as possible, I can see that each of them has grown to being such complete people, with so many wonderful qualities.They are all smart, accomplished and lovely people. I am immensely proud of my family, not one of my brothers or sisters is in serious trouble, without a job or is depressed. It’s such a gift to be surrounded by inspirational people on every side. 

My goals for being at home with them are 1. Have one deeper conversation with each member of my closer family 2. Do one activity with each member of my family that they enjoy 3. Compliment and encourage them each at every moment I can find. 4. Find out 3 new things that I didn't know about each of them

Last year I also had a lot of travelling goals that I didn't accomplish, such as going to Nepal, climbing a mountain, doing a 1000k bike ride. I wasn't able to fulfill all my expectations this year, however I have realized that every day is an adventure if seen in the right way. I will be on this trip treating it as if I was going cycling to India… no I won’t be packing my saddle bags and wearing a helmet on the flight, but I will be

1. Talking to as many new people as I can 2. Exploring everything 3. Eating new foods and trying new drinks 4. Looking at the country like a new cultural experience

Over the time away I will be writing my blog and filling out the details of what happens on the journey.