My dear friends, the Cheeks, are on holiday and their photos illustrate how much fun that they are having. They are going to the exact same places that we Brooks went to a llttle over a month ago. I am enjoying a second vacation…vicariously! As I peered at the pictures of the Silver Sands Premium Outlets…I shut my eyes and I was there again enjoying the wonderful weather and the great food and the peaceful atmosphere. Several years ago I adopted the European word for our term vacation…holiday. I love holidays… We are still anticipating Maine in September…and MJ and I both purchased luggage at the Tumi store that is in Elizabeth’s photos…for our next adventure. I literally could sit and stare at the ocean for hours on end. I can not think of anything that brings me more peace of mind and contentment and a sense of the Great Spirit.

Everywhere that I look…people are congregating and fellowshipping and enjoy their long lost friends and relatives…and fellow travelers on our mutual road of life! We have been hidden away from the Pandemic. It has been a life changing experience like none of us have known. Loved ones were lost to the deadly Virus. Our church will re-open on the 4th of July…after 16 months of being closed. We have witnessed the evil that lurks in the darkness and we rejoice that we have emerged into the light. The life lesson has been learned through tears and loneliness and fear…nothing should be taken for granted…nothing is guaranteed…nothing is forever…

Sorrow stalks us. Tears come too easily and too frequently. Loneliness is our steady companion. Health fails us. Friends move on. Loved ones die. Reversals of fortune…are common. So live… Damn It! Take the cup of life and drain it to its dregs… Enjoy the gift that you have been given…do not let fear or doubt or worry….be your commander!

Europe was so different than anything that I had ever done in my life. I had considered my goal of traveling as much as I could afford for my boys and MJ as a mission accomplished…during my working years. Upon my retirement, which I had never done before, I wanted to do something totally different. A Mediterranean Cruise was what I settled on as a door opening experience for my 53 year old personage. I had been told by a staff person in one of the shops aboard a cruise liner that we had taken a few years prior to my retirement that The Mediterranean Cruise was the premier cruise that a person could take. MJ and I planned for the great and life changing event. I took a significant portion of my sick and vacation accrued time that I had accumulated at the date of my retirement to pay for the event. One of our most anticipated meetings was with our dear friend, Margo, at our stop in Nice, France…for a luncheon date. I was like the kitten that said that he had not understood the world until his eyes were opened! Since that time in 2011 until now we have visited Europe and the United Kingdom 4 times and are planning a trip to Edinburgh, Scotland in 2022.

Do not wait for the right time to travel…now is the time!