When I first started traveling, getting ready was a major milestone.  Mentally I started the process several days before my trip.  If my departure date happened to fall during the week, I would try to have everything ready by Sunday.  The final step was always the same.  I would pull my checklist, a printed list of categories and major items that I needed on every trip, out of my sock drawer and review my efforts.

I look back and realize that I have a hard time remembering those days.  The idea of packing in advance is foreign.  While I do check my packing mentally, there is nothing in writing.  Being prepared has a new definition.  If I am packed the night before my trip, I am doing well.  Usually my efforts only come together on the day of the trip, no matter how early my departure is.

The process drives Cherry and Carli crazy.  They know I am going to forget something.  Occasionally, twice in the last fifteen years as I recall, I have forgotten something.  Once it was ties on a suit kind of trip (solved when I made a trip to the crafts store at the Hotel).  The other was more challenging.  I had no socks!  Given the early meetings, full schedule, and dinners, there was no time to solve that one.  I carefully washed my one pair of socks out each night and put then where they would dry by the morning.

I have come to rationalize my actions because I travel often.  When I travel with others vets, it seems that “it wasn’t long before we had our luggage together and were on our way to Jerusalem.”  (Acts 21.15)

Yet, I wonder about my approach.  I understand my thinking and behavior is shaped by familiar repetition.  The alternative is one of doing more early so that one can indulge in a time of peace before the journey begins.  Given the lack of relaxed moments in my day, it is an appealing thought.  Maybe next time I can plan, be ready, and prepared.