Travels

I was thinking about travelling today, and I realized something interesting. I've been travelling a lot lately. It's not for work.. it's for pleasure. But it makes me think a lot about my journeys. As I sit on the train and watch the scenery fly past, I'm reminded of my own life. The beautiful parts sometimes seem to be just flying by me. I am constantly trying to remember all the important moments. I know I'll forget many of them, but everything I do adjusts my course ever so slightly.

I've had the opportunity this week to visit my great aunts in the Toronto area. My grandma and one of my other aunts live out where we are but, she has three more sisters whom I've met, but I've never come here to visit. It was my great Aunt and Uncle's 50th wedding anniversary yesterday and we had a surprise party which had some old photos and videos of my aunts when they were younger, and of my mom being a child, growing into a teenager with some of her cousins. Those are the kind of moments that I try to treasure in my own life. I think my long lasting brush with death helped me to see those moments for what they are. Tiny moments in time, that shape who you grow to be. I don't feel much older than I did when I was a young adult.

It was also a time for me to reflect on the choices that they made in their own lives and how they've affected them. My grandmother is only 2 years older than my Aunt Sally, but she looks a decade older. She gave into old age long before her time, absence of any real exercise and developing type 2 diabetes that she makes no effort to manage have left her barely mobile, unable to take care of herself. It's sad, but a very strong reminder of what difference our attitudes and perception can make in the long run.
I've made the decision to make some serious changes in my lifestyle and diet. Some were easy choices, some were more difficult, and even more difficult to follow through with. But I think these changes will be worth the benefit, slowly but surely, I will fully recover.