Received an e-mail from my college track and cross country coach yesterday. He’s battling cancer, and wrote a paragraph giving me an update. He ended the letter with this: How are you? Are you doing OK? Are you working on another project? Take time to enjoy life. I keep getting reminded of that just a little too often.
I was thrilled to not be responding from my local Starbucks. Or from my den. Or a shopping mall. Or Cosi. I wrote him back from Arbucies, Spain. It was midnight, and we’d just returned from a breathtaking two-day trek to a town named Cadaques—easily one of the three or four most beautiful places I’ve ever seen. We ate like kings, walked the old streets, spent the morning lounging by the ocean, looking for shells and tracking down clams.The best part came yesterday morning, when my wife drove us through this insanely weaving, rambling, does-death-await? road to Cap de Creus, a place every human being should see before death. Located on the edge of the earth (aka a peninsula located at the far NE of Catalonia, some 25 km south from the French border), it puts the breath in breathtaking. We hiked up to the highest point, through the 90-plus degree heat, and found ourselves in heaven.
We always say, “Remember to appreciate life” when someone is sick, but how often do we?
Yesterday, my family and I did. In fact, this whole month my family and I have. Has been a fabulous advanture through Spain—along the ocean, deep into the streets of Barcelona, speaking the language, smelling the salts.
Travel, dear readers. Travel.
