For most people, especially women, packing even for a weekend getaway can be the cause of a mental and physical breakdown. What if it rains? What if we go out and I want to look pretty? Which sneakers match my yoga pants? How many pairs of shoes do I bring for myself, the kids and the husband? Obviously, my biggest concern is shoes…
What do you do then, if you are getting reading to leave the comfort of your home in America and decide to visit your home country of Lithuania for an extended period of time?
My family and I go to Lithuania every other year and have stuck to this “schedule” for lack of a better word for the better part of my 12 years of living in the U.S. By now I consider myself a seasoned “packer”, “traveler”, etc. and tell myself that there really is nothing to stress about. After all, we are not going to a place in the middle of a jungle with wild animals all around that make it impossible to collect our own food, not to mention make our own clothing. But… I go through the same freaking out process every. single. time.
I comfort myself that this year is exceptional. My oldest son has graduated high school, which means there will be celebrations. My sister is getting married, which means there will be celebrations prior to the wedding and, of course, the wedding itself. (And here is where the “what to wear” and “how many pairs of shoes to bring” questions become really important). My aunt has a milestone birthday, which means there will be more celebrations. And, to make this more complicated (but so much more interesting!), we’ve decided to stop over in Norway to visit my brother and his family on our way back to the States. Which means more celebrations AND a completely different weather pattern… So yes, most likely nothing to stress about because let’s face it, I get to travel and I love it.
But for some reason here it is, that ball of worry, lurking in the pit of my stomach and steadily growing into something bigger, threatening to come out in the form of snarky remarks geared towards my loved ones, or in the form of a broken plate or glass because my mind cannot handle doing mundane acts of cleaning up while there are more important things to tackle. Like packing…
So this time I decided to take a closer look at what goes on in the mind of someone who lives mostly in her head and is always planning how and what she is going to plan… Since my trip is next Wednesday, in separate blog posts I’ll try to capture a day or two at a time until the culmination of the actual journey.