As an avid traveler, to not be planning a trip is somewhat out of the ordinary for me. Yet, this summer I realized I needed a break from traveling and I need to slow down and just “be”. I decided to honor that but it hasn’t been easy.

I can remember as a teenager going with friends to the airport to watch airplanes land and take off. When I think about that now, it seems so odd. But, I loved going to the airport and watching the planes. I remember dreaming about going to exotic places or busy cities. I had so much fun dreaming and thinking about all the places I wanted to visit.

I started making that a reality while in college. At first, I did not realize the connection of my “teenage travel dreams” and what my life started to become. But just a few short years from those airplane watching days, I was traveling. I went to Florida several times, went to the Bahamas’, lived in Lake Tahoe for a summer and moved to Florida after graduating college. I took full advantage of living in Florida and visited many different cities and beaches in Florida and enjoyed it to the fullest.

I moved back to Ohio after a few years in Florida and have lived in Ohio ever since. I still continued my traveling adventures to other cities, states and countries and have influenced my daughters a great deal on the love of travel. I have enjoyed all my trips whether for business or pleasure and always love experiencing the culture, people and food wherever I travel. I was a bit taken back when I started feeling as if I needed to just “be” a little bit more and not plan any trips. I resisted it at first. This feeling started to come about late last year; however I already had two trips scheduled for the first part of this year. I decided the best way to try to honor this “no traveling and just being” phase of my life was to start with no travel plans for the summer.

While I am accepting this, my family is having a harder time as they are accustomed to me being the travel guide and planning our trips. Even though I am accepting it, I can’t say it is easy because my norm is thinking about where we are going next.

Aha! There is the lesson! I am often thinking about the future and what is next in all areas of my life. While I have fun in the moments, the “what’s next” is often on my mind. This is a great opportunity to practice being in the moment and just being. While I could argue that I do that just fine while I am traveling and I do . . . I am really good at “just being” when traveling. In fact, whether the trip is for business or pleasure I am fully in the moment of what I am doing and rarely thinking about what is next. However, I do find it a little more challenging during my everyday life to not be thinking of what is next.

I have put reminders on my calendar to not plan any trips this summer. While that sounds ridiculous or possibly even funny . . .  traveling is more my norm than not so the reminders are helpful to me as my mind often thinks of where am I going next.

This summer will have some different types of adventures. Maybe I will explore parts of Ohio I haven’t explored before, because if it is just a day trip I am not classifying it as a traveling per say. I am looking forward to the summer of “just being” and the unexpected lessons that I learn. More to come . . . and cheers to my word of the year – FUN!