Happy New Year! 2019 Resolutions for Later-Life Travelers

Swim More Laps With Geese, Resolution #3, takes some explanation, so let’s back up and start with the easy ones:

Resolution #5: Attend More Dachshund Parades (and other fun stuff)

After I sat on the curb watching pooches parade from Whitehead to Duval (a very short parade, of course), I kept smiling for hours. Dachshunds are so…….short, and cute, and hey – if they can regally parade down the street, anyone can! They give the smallest, shortest of us plenty of hope, and we sure can use some of that in the year 2019. 

And let’s not forget all those interlopers: the Chihuahua Flash Mob, the take-charge boxers, the pampered poodles, the pugs in tutus, and the rest of messed-up dog world that paraded by. This is Key West, after all, where I am absolutely sure their city slogan One Human Family includes every kind of dog, human, turtle, parrot, and chicken that lives here.

My favorite guy turned out to be a tiny mop-headed yapper, who barked furiously at an enormous horse with a police officer sitting in the saddle. The horse was busy ignoring the little yapper, but I loved the bravery, the foolishness, the desire to protect….what? Her owner? Who knows? Doesn’t matter. Yap on, little yapper! Someday that enormous horse will finally hear you, and I will never stop believing that.

Resolution #4: Eat More Chocolate, and Lose Three More Pounds

If I can lose three pounds on a Celebrity cruise (I did!), I deserve to eat chocolate sometimes. Last night we attended a swank party here at my friend’s condo complex, and I was a bit nervous since we didn’t know anyone, the place was filled with amazing art and cooler people, and, well….the chocolate bars and chocolate squares and chocolate gooey things with raspberry on top looked soooooo good. 

Today, I’ll walk miles, I’ll drink water, I’ll eat celery and peanut butter sticks. But it’s ok to eat amazing Thai food when you’re in Thailand, chocolate when you’re lucky enough to be standing next to Randy Roberts in Key West (see next resolution), and a slice of chocolate cake and two helpings of lobster on cruise dress-up night (and remember: I still lost weight). So, eat chocolate AND lose weight, eventually….. I mean, why not?

Resolution #3: Swim More Laps with Geese

So New Year’s Eve morning I’m swimming laps in the condo’s huge oceanside pool. I’m staring at the bottom of the pool through my goggles, when suddenly I look forward – into an oncoming underwater goose gliding straight for me. Huh?

Turns out two geese came in for a landing in our pool, and this one was checking out the underwater environment, which included me. I popped up to move out of its way just as the other one took off right over my head. Afraid I was getting dive-bombed, but no – that guy glided off to who knows where, soon followed by his underwater explorer buddy. Whoa! Swimming will never be the same. 

Swim More Laps With Geese means to be open to whatever comes our way, and it also means quit being reluctant to seize the moment, which I didn’t last night when I had it. Key West’s famous drag queen star, Randy Roberts, came out to the balcony and Stood Right Next To Me – and all I could do was say ‘hi’ like a shy teenager, instead of starting a conversation. Turns out I have this thing about not bothering famous people – especially ones I admire – but he seemed very nice. Everyone else was chatting with him, after all, and he looked like he was enjoying himself.

I mean, why not talk to him? I’m not going to start bothering people, of course – I took no pictures at this function since that would have been rude – but Randy’s human too, and I would have loved to ask him some questions. My friend says that if I behave in 2019, she just might invite me to attend the party again next year. So there’s do-overs in life sometimes…….and next time, I’ll have my conversation starters ready just in case I run into Randy again.

Resolution #2: It’s OK to Procrastinate Sometimes, but Finish the Important Stuff

Don’t know about you, but writers procrastinate, they just do. It’s because writing is HARD, that’s really all there is to it, for me anyway. Dorothy Parker summed it up so well when she said, “I LOATHE writing. I love having written.” 

Yep. But I have to write things to ‘love having written’– In 2019, I look forward to the day I can say “I loved having written” that difficult post about Saigon’s War Crimes Museum, and all the rest of the Caribbean posts, and so much more I want to say. I also don’t want to forget the amazing places we’ve been, the people we’ve met, and the adventures we’ve had on our travels. When I write about it all, it sticks in my mind in the best way. Padre’s great about journaling every day (I depend on that, in fact). So as much as I like to procrastinate sometimes, in 2019 I will work at getting the important stuff done every day, just like Padre does (I’ll try, anyway).

But who says travel posts have to be in order, anyway? Sometimes I just need to think about things for awhile (or I’m busy eating chocolate, or meeting Randy Roberts). So in no particular order in 2019, more posts coming soon.

Resolution #1: Be Grateful and Joyful As Often As Possible

We’re not spring chickens anymore, and every time I stumble on another of Key West’s ubiquitous chickens, for some reason that thought – we’re not spring chickens anymore– pops into my head. I think that’s because our shortened window of opportunity for travel adventures makes me appreciate each moment much more than I did when I was 20 and life stretched off into the future so endlessly (or so it seemed at the time). 

We were fortunate enough to arrive in Bangkok in early April, during the Songkran Festival, the Thai New Year’s celebration. We joined friendly Thais as they made temple visits, danced, and doused everything in sight (and everyone) with water in celebration. Monks ladled water over Padre’s head, and I did my best to dodge water blasts from random squirt gun battlers in Bangkok’s streets.

Very fun, and such joy everywhere! Our guide Ranee did such a wonderful job teaching us about Buddhist practices, especially the practice of thankfulness. I recently read a book that has helped me build on what I learned from Ranee: The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World, by Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Dalai Lama XIV.  One of my favorite quotes in the whole book goes like this:

“Gratitude is the recognition of all that holds us in the webs of life and all that has made it possible to have the life that we have and the moment that we are experiencing. Thanksgiving is a natural response to life! 

Oh yes it is. 

So in the year 2019, I hope to savor all the conversations with loved ones, old friends, new friends, our cabin steward, delight in every swim with a goose, every Dachshund Parade, every moment God gives us to live, in this great big beautiful world. And to always, every day, say thank you.

The Happiest of New Year’s everyone, and may your travels bring you great joy in the year 2019, and always. Next on our agenda is a move to the Meadows, Key West’s charming historical neighborhood. The first thing I’ll do is bake cookies, to bribe the neighbors. They liked that last year, so more Happy New Year’s cookies for them!

“Wherever you have friends that’s your country, and wherever you receive love, that’s your home.” 

 from The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World