The Adventure Begins
I had plans of traveling indefinitely with my husband when he retired two weeks before Covid broke out. Instead of traveling we stayed in our small downsized apartment and waited for the world to open up again. Don’t get me wrong, we did not just sit there, we entertained ourselves with hiking, pickleball and more hiking and more pickleball. At times we felt isolation, fear, boredom, especially with each other. We felt as if we were being denied the privilege of, what I like to call, the age of self-consent, the ability to do exactly what we want to do with our lives.
Two years, two vaccinations and a booster later, I walked past my husband’s office, the Zoom call I overheard made me stop to hear more:
“We could do with your help setting up offices in Berlin, Germany. We need a German on the ground.” The person on the screen commented. My husband is German.
“I can consult with you virtually from California a day or two a week.” My husband replied.
“We need a person in the country.” Replied the man on the screen.
I’m not sure what happened to me in that moment, but I knew I could no longer continue the exhausting conversation about when it would be Covid safe enough to begin my journey and where we should travel to. We were spinning and not making up our minds. Covid had derailed our momentum and we now lacked the spark to jump into the life we wanted to live.
I took a piece of paper and scribbled: Tell him you will do it. We will be there in thirty days. I placed the piece of paper under my husband’s nose. He was on Zoom and extreme facial reactions would make him look like he was crazy, but he managed to glance at me at the corner of his eye. He concluded his call with:
“I will get back to you on the topic.” Logged off and looked at me:
“I was not aware that Berlin was on your bucket list?”
“It’s not. But it’s time for us to begin our adventure. This is an opportunity to take the first step. From Berlin, we can move on. Live the life that we want to live.”
He retrieved the note from the garbage can where he had tossed it.
“I’m saving the note for the day when you will say. Why did we do this?”
“Good idea. I know I will forget it was my idea when we are having a tough moment.”
The day before we left San Francisco a friend asked me:
“Are you excited?”
“Excited no. Curious yes.”
Minus the time we were going to spend in Berlin for Peter’s job, we did not have a plan. Which made packing a challenge. I finally decided to pack for a calendar year. I wanted to take the clothes I had not worn during the pandemic, which meant all my clothes minus the leggings, instead, I packed a couple of outfits for every season and my hiking gear into one suitcase and with Peter boarded a plane to Berlin via Frankfurt.
