I am headed to Mexico in two days and will return in a month’s time. People have asked whether I am taking a camera…I thought about it for a while before deciding not to. Several years ago when I helped take a group of students to England, all of my photos were ruined at the developer. Fortunately, and not surprisingly, I wrote everywhere we had been and simply excerpted journal entries to create about five pages of reflection. I passed those out when people would ask to see where I had gone. It worked well and more accurately suited my reflection of a given event than a photo would.

There were some things I am sorry to have lost. The photos of Tintern Abbey come to mind in particular. But, tucked into the pages where I wrote of my simultaneous desire to be as small and close to the ground as possible and as tall and spread out as can be, there is a leaf from the tree under which I indulged in Wordsworth and romantic thoughts of poetic wanders.

I have hope that similar things will happen over the next month. Expect to read about them. Be well.