I don’t remember who it was who said it, that 90% of the pleasure of travel lies in anticipation, the other 10% in recollection. There is, I believe, much truth in that statement, but anticipation and recollection are both of great worth.

I have recently returned from a long-anticipated trip, in fact one I have been considering and setting aside for many years, to New Zealand and Australia. I have two former exchange students in those countries: Mami, who was born and grew up in Japan and now lives in Auckland, and Megan, who is from the Melbourne area. My daughter, Beth-Alison, who has as deep a connection with these young women as I, was able to shake some time loose from her busy schedule to go with me. What could be better?

As it turned out, the trip was both magical and enormously difficult. Mami and Megan were perfect hosts. But, unfortunately, a couple of weeks before we left on the trip acute pain began radiating from my lower back—the heritage of 40 years of sitting at a keyboard—and I wasn’t able to get it under control before leaving. So I experienced both countries and even celebrated my 75th birthday through something of a codeine haze. Finally, I ended the  trip a bit early.

Nonetheless, I arrived home filled to the brim, deeply grateful for my home and my life here and knowing that all I saw and experienced on the other side of the world will, inevitably, touch my stories.

And so I offer today just a glimpse of the new world that now lives inside me.

And for all of us a wish in this time of deep wishing that we all in this beautiful blue world could find peace.