Come Back New

That is the refrain for the Princess cruise line and that is how I feel on returning from a 15 day cruise through the Panama Canal.  I feel like in many ways I "come back new."  It is a very good feeling.

This trip came up pretty quickly when my friend Susan said that she and Ken had booked it to celebrate his 70th birthday this summer.  I just felt really drawn to join them and was fortunate enough to have money to be able to just do it.  Chuck and I travel best on cruises and this one was no exception.

A book by Christine Vaultner Paintner, Illuminating the Way, had been recommended to me and I purchased one for me and Susan specifically for this trip.  It was an exploratin of the lives of 12 monks and mystics and was a wonderful companion to the "retreat" part of this time away.  We each began our day with a different monk and were blessed to have the time to read, reflect, meditate and write.  Chuck sleeps in and I cannot overstate the gift of sitting on a deck chair and having the time to just be with God.  The very first day I was struck by the constant movement of the waves, the expansiveness of the sky and the hidden depths of the ocean.  It is  mesmerizing and the gift of cruising for me.

The first "Monk" was St Francis of Assisi and the words that came to me after spending time with this "Holy Fool" were "Lighten Up!"  What a good message as we began our time together. And, as I look at my journal, the last words I wrote from the morning times were "Stay with Me"  I left with the reminder of the importance of just staying with this moment and this life, this new life that God has for me.  I will probably write more in this blog about this book, but it was an important aspect to a cruise that was both retreat and vacation.

The vacation part included great food, games on the ship, interesting places to visit (like Aruba, Panama, Cartegena, Colombia and Guatemala.  Just going through the Panama Canal and the wonder of that magnificent project was amazing.  I am partway through The Path Between the Seas by David McCullough and read about the visionaries, the adventurers and the fools that made it happen.  Thousands of lives were lost in the creation of the Canal and it is truly wondrous.

I come home new and ready to jump back into the life that is mine  and the gift of family, friends, and interesting work and play.  It was so good to take a pause and go away for an extended time and now it is very good to be home.