The trip Joan and I are currently on has been an experiment of sorts.

Specifically, it is the first time in our joint jauntings that we have plopped down in one place for a whole month. Some time ago we decided to rent a house about an hour west of Portland, OR to make our base of operations for all of July. I have a brother, sister-in-law, and two nieces in the area, so it is a neck of the woods we have been to (and enjoyed) previously.

Most of the time our traveling approach has been to launch a series of blitzkrieg assaults on a large number of targets all at once, quicksniffing the flowers, powergulping the IPAs and merlots, and rapidfire snapping hundreds of beautiful, postable photos as we zip through. At the end of each day, if we have the energy and/or will, we might pause and reflect on what we just saw and experienced.

Or not.

Lately though, we came to realize this approach required we engage in a rather dubious exchange. This pell-mell style of travel was causing us to trade a measure of QUANTITY for QUALITY. Yes, we have been seeing a lot of stuff. But what kind of “seeing” are we actually doing, we wondered.

So, for this trip, we are slowing it down. Dropping anchor. Putting down some (temporary) roots. Stopping for six solid minutes and smelling a whole bunch of roses! And so, as I mentioned here earlier this month, at the end of June we packed the two doggos into the trusty Prius and set sail!

And I’ll tell you what… It isn’t half bad!

I joined a local gym for a month. We’ve attended the same church three weeks in a row. Done two loads of laundry. Figured out a couple of different routes to the grocery store. Had my brother and sister-in-law over for dinner here twice… gone to their house for dinner twice. Chosen a favorite dog-and-hiking park, (out of several contenders) and are starting to feel very comfortable and relaxed in this Oregon home away from home.

Heck, we have even had a couple of days when we just sat around on our butts and did NOTHING AT ALL!

So, I’m sold. Slow and scenic is a nice way to go. It also comports nicely with our advanced stage of life. But it wasn’t until earlier today that I realized the real dividend we are enjoying on this trip. 

It is the dividend of SHARING. 

Imagine that! We can compare notes! We can ask questions! We can laugh! We can OOOO! We can AHHHHH! We can share the experience.

When we are not spending the daylight hours seeing sights and getting from Point “A” to Point “B,” and the evening hours preparing for tomorrow’s adventurous assault, we can actually relax and talk about what we are doing! 

Please understand; I am not denigrating the experience of solo travel. By no means. I know several people who absolutely LOVE to travel by themselves, set their own agenda, and see sights on their own.

Speaking for myself only, I have to say I don’t feel as if I have truly experienced a place or an event until I’ve had a chance to SHARE that experience with someone I love. This comes about because of a strange kind of dependency (not the best word in this setting, but the best I can come up with right now) that sprouts from the fertile soil of marriage.

That is, I depend on Joan to help me see where I am blind. I depend on her to know where I am ignorant. I also depend on her to feel where I have become numb or jaded. On my own, I experience one thing. Together, we experience two… or more.

At some point, we all must rely on someone or something that is NOT us. The Apostle Paul faced a lot of stressors in his ministry. But he ultimately realized that the great trials he faced helped teach him that God was the ONLY one who could be relied on, time and time again. In his second letter to the Corinthians he said, “Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death so that we would rely not on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead…” (II Corinthians 1:9, NRSVU). 

So, whether traveling solo, in pairs, or as a group, ALWAYS rely on God.

Abundant blessings;