A Sense of Mortality

My travel schedule for this year and the next is filling up.  In a month I will return to Mexico City for three weeks.  Thanksgiving and Christmas will be spent in Columbus, Ohio, and there will be a short trip to Chicago to visit friends.  In January and February of 2016 I already have my reservations to spend five weeks in Mérida, Yucatán, and Mexico City. I have received an invitation from one of my cousins in Switzerland to attend a big birthday party there next August.  I plan on being there, and while I am in Europe, perhaps visit some countries I have not seen before.

I suppose that there are some people who think, "Doesn't he EVER stay at home?"  It is true that as soon as I return home, I am getting ready for my next trip.  I haven't even put away my suitcases from my trip to Spain.  There are renovations on the house that should be done, but I never seem to be home long enough to tackle them.  I love to travel, and as I get older I realize that I only have a finite number of years left to me.  Even if I live to be 100, somewhere down the road I will not have the physical capability to be a globetrotter.

That sense of mortality was hammered home recently when I received the news that a very dear friend, only a couple years older than I, has been diagnosed with stage four cancer.  I hope that she is successful in her battle against cancer, but it shows how one's life can be completely turned around overnight.  And so I will continue to travel for as long as I can!