Yesterday my daughter began her sojourn home from New York where she’d visited my grandson at Ft. Drum. She’d flown there on Thursday from Louisiana. Unfortunately, Mother Nature prevented her from following her trail of bread crumbs home. Her flight there, which included a stop in D.C., was rerouted yesterday. Washington, D. C. wasn’t accepting visitors. At all. She spent the day in Syracuse awaiting her new connecting flight to Cleveland that would bring her into Houston. From Houston she took a short flight here (back to Louisiana). Also yesterday her husband flew back to his job in Alaska (from here), so all day they were both traveling, except for the fact that my daughter was grounded in Syracuse for hours and hours. Still, neither one was home. Are you following?

Daughter #2 presently lives in Malaysia. She’s been there with her family since 2010. She comes and goes in the summer and winter for Christmas, thank goodness, but she isn’t home. At least Daughter #1 will be home by early afternoon today. Daughter #2 might be home (and by home I mean stateside) by 2015. That means those grandchildren, perhaps, might live nearer to us before they’re grown. We have another daughter in Tennessee, and that will be another post, but blessedly we do have daughters living near enough to us that we can see them (and our grandchildren) without planning a major trip, packing, or even bringing a toothbrush. To them we are eternally grateful. We’ve made trips to see Daughter #4, the one in TN, of course, and I’ve been to Malaysia twice, but I don’t relish the thought of another trip to Malaysia. Two times are quite enough, thank you very much. Never say never, though. The pull of those grandchildren (and their mother) is stronger than the pull of the moon. More about that in another post someday. Tennessee? Always doable.

I realize there are some who believe travel to be wondrous, who believe seeing other parts of the world (or the country) to be necessary to one’s growth as a human being. I was once one of those people, and even now I do think short trips abroad are a good thing (when safe). That said, I have a confession to make. I like that for other people. I think everyone else should travel the world, live abroad, even travel around this country at will. I’m becoming less and less happy when those people are part of our family, unless it’s me. I don’t worry when it’s me.

Yesterday wasn’t a good day with Daughter #1’s travel plans interrupted so far away while her husband was heading “north to Alaska” at the same time. I should mention that while Daughter #1 was traveling to NY a few days ago, her sister (the one in Malaysia) was traveling home from Cambodia after completing a mission there. True, that’s not a long trip, Cambodia to Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur), but it meant she was out of “my” comfort zone.

As Carole King asks, “Doesn’t anybody stay in one place anymore?”  Don’t my children realize that when they are not in their designated spot (in my head, at least) I worry? Also, if travel they must, couldn’t they do it one at a time? One at a time just for me?

So, that’s it! All day yesterday I was out of my comfort zone, even though I never left the house. Time to exhale, indeed.