Spontaneity

I’m thankful for those little sparks that inspire me to do things I don’t normally do. Yesterday we took a road trip, two hours of open desert. I’m grateful that I had the freedom to drop everything and go. I’m thankful that I had extra funds to have a good time. And perhaps most of all, I’m thankful I was able to spend the impromptu trip with someone I love. We had an awesome time. Traveling isn’t always easy for us. Between my PTSD and his sensitivities being on the spectrum, we can both get overwhelmed and stimulated pretty quickly.

Lucky for us (in a totally morbid horrible way) we didn’t encounter too many humans along the way. So far in the past year, I’ve ridden a rollercoaster entirely by myself. I’ve walked through casinos that looked like ghost towns. It’s creepy being the only person on a mini-golf course and the only one being in a restaurant.

Although I don’t want to be careless and stupid about my travels, there is something very special about trying to seize the day amid chaos and finding myself in a post-apocalyptic landscape. I feel privileged and thankful to be able to witness this significant time in our collective history from the nearly anthropological perspective of exploring areas of the human activity that was once here and has now since gone.

[from January 2020 in reference to visiting Tombstone, Arizona]