As if it wasn't already stressful to arrange leaving your life for two and a half months. As if there hadn't been enough things on the list to cross off before leaving the front door. As if you hadn't stayed up till 4am packing, ftting in good friends between rescue insurance, automatic bill-pay, and having the kitties well cared for. It was as if the airline scheduler didn't know that the yak was waiting for your duffel bags five days from now.
Didn't know that one thing leads to the next, and that change at the beginning of things has the most impact. That grande flights lead to venti flights lead to new countries and dinners and teammates and tall flights into the high Himalaya where the yaks are waiting, even now. As if canceling your fligt and rescheduling for the next day were okay. But imagination and creative problem solving aren't part of the job description.
Some things get crossed off the list because they are complete. Some things get 'X'-ed off because there is no time left for them. The item 'relax', while the realization started so nicely on the back deck, snow melting, sun shining, and loved ones and tea waiting, the item would be quickly X-ed off, as implications that the flight was canceled set in. In the end, an extra stop in San Francisco on the way to LA solved the problem. And my duffels even made the plan (at least the first one).
Now the reality of the next few months begins to set in. It will be life at a slower pace, where if sleep for 10 hours a night is what you want, it will be what you get. It will be learning new Nepali songs, walking on familiar paths down low and unknown ones up high. There will be challenges at many levels: physical, psychological, political, emotional. As with the flight, through problem solving, excitement, looking at things anew, and a little extra help, the journey is sure to lead to a good place.
-Val
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