When it comes to having a great life, many wise people remind us that the journey is as is important as the destination.
Good point, but a better one, for me at least, is that who you choose as your traveling companions makes the journey the most important of all.
Those with whom you spend time help to shape you and bring glorious hues into your life that you might not otherwise see in your box of life-coloring crayons.
Lake Superior has been one of my most constant companions, though, admittedly, when the traveling gets done, I’m the one in the car and the Lake is the one making a scene (and making the scenery). Lake Superior colors itself
from
tropical aqua to steely gray, but its most amazing quality may be its ability – right here in the center of the continent – to embody infinity with a distant horizon that can blend seamlessly from sparkling blue water into brilliant blue sky. We literally drink it in, and the Lake becomes part of us. It gifts me with a sense of continuation and of our connection to Creation.
An unfortunate life journey would be one where all of your traveling companions are exactly like you. I have a giant paperweight (it takes two hands and a bit of back muscle to hold) that illustrates such a journey. Inside are glass corals and a dozen or more tiny glass fish, all the same colors, swimming the same direction in a school. They look happy enough, but they’re really getting nowhere.
We would all have a tendency, I fear, toward traveling only with those who make us too comfortable and tame. Thank the Creator for helping us to avoid that sameness by gifting us with two great opportunities – family and co-workers (which are kind of a family, too, given our time together).
Siblings can be polar opposites in things like politics and personal interests, but still can provide that solid base of love and acceptance you need to experiment in life. They also influence you in ways you may not realize, as I learned a few years back when my doctor and I discovered that my sister was also her patient.
“Oh yes,” my doctor said, “I see the resemblance.”
“Yup,” I acknowledged, “as we get older, we look more and more alike.”
“No,” she corrected me. “I meant your personalities.”
Well, color me Sis (and Boo and Den).
Co-workers bring the best variety. Here in our office with our crew, I’ve discovered the joys of motorcycling from an avid biker; slices of sweetness and tartness from a passionate apple afficionado; the proper pronunciations of all things Finnish from, yeah, you guessed it, a Finn; the fun of remote-control airplanes from a weekend pilot; and the amazing number of quotes one can come up with from R.E.M. songs and Seinfeld episodes from a fan (a fanatic, really) of both. My husband, who is also a co-worker, has broadened my knowledge of music, history and baseball and taught me about true puppy love (for our puppy and for a husband).
And then we come to the retiring captains of our flagship magazine. Paul and Cindy Hayden chose the crew with which we travel. They’ve shown me how to translate a passion for a place into a lifetime commitment to telling the world about it.
Cindy and Paul will become “empty nesters,” since retiring from Lake Superior Magazine will be like sending their child off to college … though after 40 years it has grown up quite a bit. They have the satisfaction of knowing that their baby is in very good, experienced hands with Ron Brochu and Beth Bily, and they’ll be helping the transition. (Ron and I go back to the college newspaper, so he’s already colored my travels.)
For me, Paul and Cindy have become siblings, and I thank them for our 20 years together. Through the Big Lake, their color is true blue.