TRAVEL THERAPY #9:
Perfectly Imperfect

You’d think after being pelted with rain for most of our two week family vacation, I’d need an intense travel therapy session. But, surprisingly—no, shockingly—my children looked through the rain and saw the beauty of Ireland and its people. The result was a perfectly imperfect (and hands down favorite) family wander.

“Have no fear of perfection, you’ll never reach it.” | SALVIDOR DALI

My good weather karma gave out on Day 2 of our trip to the Emerald Isle.

Despite countless hours of planning in an effort to evade Ireland’s infamous rain, it rained almost every day of our 13 day family adventure. Our inappropriate shoes constantly sloshed. Our hair was perpetually damp. We couldn’t wear more than half of the cute clothes I had so thoughtfully purchased just for this journey. One day, the rain even managed to penetrate four layers, soaking through coats, sweaters, shirts and underwear until it reached our goose-pimpled skin. What the HELL…it was July, for crying out loud!

Sounds miserable, right?

Far from it. It was unanimous—our best family vacation to date. Go figure.

In the face of far lesser vacation challenges, my kids have morphed into demons. Yet, on this soggy Irish adventure, their groans were minimal and didn’t come close to drowning out their enthusiasm for all things Irish. Even at peak saturation, shivering under a dirty tarp while torrential rain and dime-sized hail stones pelted them, their disgruntlement was relatively minimal. Okay, maybe this was because they were thoroughly relishing the sight of their mother getting her ass kicked by Ma Nature and a bouncing pony in the dramatic Gap of Dunloe. Less than an hour later, as we peeled off our water laden clothes inside the rental car, they were actually giggling as they reminisced over what just happened mere minutes earlier.

It wasn’t just the weather that was uncooperative in Ireland. Time also kicked our butts. It raced by and ran out, but rather than fight it, I let go…nixing some key stops on our once-in-a-lifetime itinerary without too much pain. We were just having too much fun to be dampened by anything other than the rain.

So, this post-wander travel therapy session is a simple one, entailing only an acknowledgement—I hear you, Universe. Clearly things don’t have to be perfect to be…well, perfect. Perfectly imperfect will do just fine. I’ll make a sincere effort to remember this in the future and revel, rather than complain, in the imperfections that life throws my way.

In my next Travel Therapy session, I begin to make a necessary midlife transition after a solo wander to the north shore of Kauai.