Balance the gift of days that call you...

The sign above has nothing to do with my post today, and yet, in a way it has everything to do with my post! Don't you wish you knew this store owner?  Isn't this how we all should live our lives--being generous and understanding our deep need for the wisdom and humor (and escape) we can find in books?  

So, we turn another calendar page and enter November, the month where darkness begins before you leave work at five, where you can't enter a story without holiday music and decorations greeting you first thing (Home Depot had its Christmas tree display up in October!) and where we need to sometimes reach deep within ourselves to remember to give thanks for what we do have, instead of focusing on what we don't have at the moment.  So I'll start this month of thanks giving by being thankful for my husband, my willing partner in all our travel adventures.  No one has the ability to turn around a gray day like he does, and he's always up for any fun we can create or find while on the road.  

Here are a few more memories from Chatham and Provincetown.
 

Steeler country...even in Cape Cod!

Chatham was obviously trying for "Pumpkin Capitol" of Cape Cod!

We couldn't believe our eyes when a seal popped up right in front of us at the beach!

We had fun exploring, even though all the national sites were closed (thanks, Congress!)

We'd never heard of the Pilgrim Monument before, located in Provincetown.  Stay tuned tomorrow to find out how many steps there are to the top!  My legs are still complaining...

 

 Memorial depicting the signing of the Mayflower Covenant.

The following is the Mayflower Compact:

In the Name of God, Amen.

 

We, whose names are underwritten, the Loyal Subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord King James, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, defender of the Faith, &c. Having undertaken for the Glory of God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith, and the Honor of our King and Country, a Voyage to plant the first colony in the northern Parts of Virginia; Do by these Presents, solemnly and mutually in the Presence of God and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil Body Politick, for our better Ordering and Preservation, and Furtherance of the Ends aforesaid; And by Virtue hereof do enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions, and Offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general Good of the Colony; unto which we promise all due Submission and at Cape Cod the eleventh of November, in the Reign of our Sovereign Lord King James of England, France, and Ireland, the eighteenth and of Scotland, the fifty-fourth. Anno Domini, 1620



Here's a nice poem by John O’Donohue about traveling.  I think my husband and I do a good job of following the poem's suggestion to live your time away to its fullest.  I love its urging to "not waste the invitations which wait along the way to transform you."   May we always remember to  balance the gift of days that call us!

For the Traveler
Every time you leave home,
Another road takes you
Into a world you were never in.
New strangers on other paths await.
New places that have never seen you
Will startle a little at your entry.
Old places that know you well
Will pretend nothing
Changed since your last visit.
When you travel, you find yourself
Alone in a different way,
More attentive now
To the self you bring along,
Your more subtle eye watching
You abroad; and how what meets you
Touches that part of the heart
That lies low at home:
How you unexpectedly attune
To the timbre in some voice,
Opening in conversation
You want to take in
To where your longing
Has pressed hard enough
Inward, on some unsaid dark,
To create a crystal of insight
You could not have known
You needed
To illuminate
Your way.
When you travel,
A new silence
Goes with you,
And if you listen,
You will hear
What your heart would
Love to say.
A journey can become a sacred thing:
Make sure, before you go,
To take the time
To bless your going forth,
To free your heart of ballast
So that the compass of your soul
Might direct you toward
The territories of spirit
Where you will discover
More of your hidden life,
And the urgencies
That deserve to claim you.
May you travel in an awakened way,
Gathered wisely into your inner ground;
That you may not waste the invitations
Which wait along the way to transform you.
May you travel safely, arrive refreshed,
And live your time away to its fullest;
Return home more enriched, and free
To balance the gift of days which call you.

Have a wonderful Friday!