Vacationing At Home

In many days gone by I used to dread getting ready for company. For some reason, probably financial, I didn’t have household help then and procrastination was hard to resist. I’d say to myself, Wait until a day or so before they come or you’ll just have to do it all again. Then it never failed to be one gigantic job and I’d be still sweeping the doorstep or taking a bath right up to the doorbell’s ring.

Today is different. My elder son, Wally and his wife, Nancy, are coming from Virginia tomorrow and it just happens that Maria, my housecleaner, is scheduled for today. Maria always does a great job. Things will be spic and span. There will be family gatherings and outings and guess what? I won’t be preparing a single meal for a week! I won’t be driving people here and there or even paying for tickets to plays and art shows and other outings. Just you wait, dear readers, your day will come too when you’ll be the matriarch or patriarch of your family and will only need to think about two things, - looking your best and enjoying the company.

I’ve given away my luggage because I don’t expect to be traveling any more. I was nearly sixty before I ever set foot on another continent and made up for it by taking three or four tours abroad starting with three weeks in China when the country had only been opened up to Westerners a few years. What an out-of-this-world trip that was! I wouldn’t recognize the new China. Then I took tours in the British Isles and Europe. Always with a group, never alone. With Dr. Robby, my second husband, I took several ocean cruises, Hawaii, the Mediterranean, the Panama Canal, Mexican Pacific and the Caribbean. 

All traveling is fun and pleasant to remember, but now? Now I’m hoping to live long enough to take “virtual” tours where I can sit at home and enjoy them on a wrap-around screen that will fall from the ceiling with the push of a button. It’s not that I am lazy. Well, I confess I am lazy. No apology for that. When you’re a senior-senior you don’t need to apologize. You just wear a sweet smile and sit back to enjoy each day like a big picture show.

Being at home these days is like a vacation to me. I’ve done most of the things I might have put on a “Bucket List.” Got a bucketful of memories to last like chocolates do when you’ve learned to keep them cool and savor them slowly and sparingly. I’m no angel and my world has not always been sweetness and light, but here’s one of the many Bible citations I’ve loved on this life-trip:

“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life...” (Psalms 23) I looked that passage up in a Bible commentary once and it said, “Goodness and mercy are like pursuing angels, and they’ll run you down!” Gloryosky! I think they did it already!