Travel time

I've never travelled for an extended period of time but I have seen those travellers - sitting around in the common rooms of hostels, writing in their journals, and revisiting their favourite haunts in whichever city they've found themselves in rather than racing from one tourist attraction to the next. This series of short trips feels a little like the extended travel variety of travel. 

Family portrait at a monastery on Mount Carmel

Not that I'm leisurely wandering from hostel to cafe and writing in a journal. But I am taking things day by day, not too concerned with seeing the sights but enjoying where I am at any given time. Granted, this approach was partly because I left all the Israel planning up to Ze'ev, but there was little stress in just going along for the ride. I do enjoy a more active approach to travel as being in Israel felt almost too normal rather than being and international trip for us; I have a mental list of things I want to do for our next trip to Israel but I enjoyed this trip for what it was. Family, showing off my baby, eating delicious food, as well as some adventures like hiking up Masada and walking along the rampart wall around Jerusalem's old city.

Family portrait at the Dome of the Rock

People have asked me how it is to travel with a seven-month-old baby and in some ways it is easier than being at home - I don't have to clean, I cook less often, and my husband is around full time. This is a different way of being and a different rhythm to our day to day. I am looking forward to being back home again and getting into a new routine with Leo but in the meantime... onward to Costa Rica!

Leo on his seven month birthday in the old city of Jerusalem

Three months later...

Wow. [Enter cliché about time moving quickly.] I've actually had two friends remind me recently that I haven't posted on this blog in a number of months. Well, despite travelling like crazy for the next while I resolve once again to post every two weeks or so.

 

Leo on December 18 - his sixth month birthday

I heard something... somewhere... in the last couple weeks that people rarely smile when they are by themselves; smiling is a social expression. This started me thinking about how much more I smile since I have a baby. Not necessarily because I'm happier or feel more fulfilled (do I? This would require a complicated response...) but because I'm almost constantly talking to Leo with bright and exagerrated expressions. In some ways this is tiring, to be "on demand" all the time - but it is so sweet (and so worth it) when I realize I've been lost in thought or looking at something else and then catch Leo fully staring at my face and breaking into a huge smile when I finally return his gaze.

 

He didn't enjoy the crown, but hey - at least I'm smiling!

I also wonder whether this does make me/mothers/parents happier in general. Isn't it often repeated that smiling more will make us happier even if we're consciously initiating the smile rather than waiting for smiles to issue forth from our happiness? Ok, I'm not even sure if it's happiness I'm after in the grand scheme of things but I do wonder about the effect of all this smiling on my overall mood and sense of well being. 

 

Snowshoeing near Jasper, Alberta

I remember as a child and a teenager trying to capture or consciously realize the moments I felt most content, alive, inspired, full of life. I had one of those moments while snowshoeing with my family in Jasper almost a week ago. Smiling is wonderful but I also need to get myself walking through the trees regularly for the sake of my well being and inspiration.

 

Ze'ev and Leo looking over the Jasper townsite