The adventure is over or continuing forever?

I am back in Waterloo after a lovely tour of Eastern Ontario with Kevin. I think that means the adventures are over. I know that the first questions will be: 

                                     What was your favourite part of the year?

                                     What has changed? Are you different?

                                     What have you learned?

                                     Will you be able to go back to your normal life?

                                     Were you very disappointed when the corona virus pandemic                                       interrupted your plans?

When I was in Grade 13, we studied "Le Petit Prince" by Antoine St. Exupery in French class. It is a book full of wisdom. For example, when the Little Prince describes the problems with baobab trees on his planet, he is showing us the destructive nature of bad habits and bad decisions if they are not stopped in the early stages. 

 Now there were some terrible seeds on the planet that was the home of the little prince; and these were the seeds of the baobab. The soil of that planet was infested with them. A baobab is something you will never, never be able to get rid of if you attend to it too late. It spreads over the entire planet. It bores clear through it with its roots. And if the planet is too small, and the baobabs are too many, they split it in pieces…

                                    I think I have overcome ruminating. Spending so much time alone, means that I have been through my emotional history a few times over and now feel better able to let go of the matters that I cannot change. I don't want to waste time on things that don't really matter, but rather spend time continuing to do and experience life fully as I did on my adventures. 

Children, I say plainly, “watch out for the baobabs!”

Another wonderful quote from le Petit Prince helps describe the way I have made plans this year, with an openness, and then DID what I planned. Instead of just "wishing". This is a good new habit! Despite the interruption of the pandemic, I have done such wonderful things and met wonderful people, here in Ontario and around the world.

A goal without a plan is just a wish. ("wish" is sometimes translated as "dream"...the French is "souhait")

What I have learned, therefore, from this year, is to make goals with their plans. Then the plans change--that is where the adventure lies. 

I have noticed that all over the world, children are the same. Children are the hope of the future. Make no mistake! Time spent with a child is most worthy--and to help make the world safer and healthier for children is the secret to peace. I am so grateful to be a teacher as well as an adventurer.

I have lived a great deal among grown-ups. I have seen them intimately, close at hand. And that hasn’t much improved my opinion of them.

I cannot pinpoint a favourite experience, since there are too many, so I think I will leave this blog to speak for itself. Each post described in some way what I was enjoying or learning or thinking about. Perhaps time will bring forth one favourite experience at a time as I remember those things which have delighted me or moved me over the past year.

“The most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or touched, they are felt with the heart.”

I can say with assurance that Canada is a beautiful country and I have enjoyed my experiences within it as much as other places in the world. Thank you for joining me on my adventures. When we next meet, or in the comments below, you will ask me any  remaining questions and I will share what this year has meant to me as best I can. 

“What makes the desert beautiful,' said the little prince, 'is that somewhere it hides a well...”