Do I miss travel? Yes, but not with the aching emptiness it appears some people do. Unless Facebook reminds me, I spend almost no time thinking about where I was on this day in past years, nor do I dwell on where I am supposed to be right now or in the months to come. What I thought would happen simply didn’t, and that’s that.
Yesterday I had an interesting experience when I wore a pair of pants I haven’t put on in a very long time. I felt something in the pocket and when I fished it out, I saw it was a Euro coin. I know I didn’t taken these pants last summer to the Baltic, so the coin must go back several years.
”What am I going to do with this?” I wondered. It’s useless clutter in a coin dish, and I have no idea where my leftover foreign money is at the moment so I can’t stash it there. I did the only thing I could think of: I put it back in my pocket, where it will stay, zipped in, through the washer and dryer, hikes, beach walks, and whatever other use I put these pants to until travel begins again.
I am going to treat it as an amulet, a good luck charm. One day I will take these pants to Europe and there it will be, awaiting its chance to be once more out in the world. What will it buy me? A metro ride, a bottle of water on a hot day? Wait— I know! I will give it to the first person I see who needs it more than I do. I rub my fingers in circles over its outline as I write, invoking it as a blessing for better days to come.