The Plan

This is the first of my new Friday posts on my trip planning.  I don’t have a good name for what I want to achieve; it’s really intended to be more than a trip, but I’m not sure what else to call it.  I’m not really looking for anything, so it’s hard to call it a quest, though I do hope to look at a variety of things.  And perhaps I will serendipitously find things, the definition of serendipity being the finding of things you are not looking for that come in handy later on.

I suppose I am hoping to go with an open mind and heart and experience serendipity.  In the original story Serendip is an island, possibly to be associated with Sri Lanka, but more likely in the same region as Lilliput and Utopia.  In that story the three princes of Serendip are actually on a quest, though it’s been many years since I read the book and I can’t quite remember whether the quest to rescue the princess or heal the king was part of the events they found or the reason they set off.  It may well have been that they were setting of to seek their fortune.

I am the middle of three daughters.  However, since I do not actually live inside a Grimm fairy tale, this should not mean I am doomed to ill adventure.

(One of the reasons I’ve always liked “Snow White and Rose Red” is that it is about sisters who are friends and help each other (and indeed brothers who do the same), rather than ones who are in a conflicted relationship that ends badly for the elder ones.  Though admittedly my younger sister tends to be lucky.)

It could be a pilgrimage, but I’m not seeking a saint’s tomb, or at least not any one’s in particular, after St Cuthbert’s on the Holy Isle of Lindisfarne, the first stage of the plan.  Adventure seems a bit pretentious, and certainly dangerous to wish for.

Can I say I am looking for the materials of the One Day House?  I am looking to fill up my storehouse of ideas, to expand some of the cramped horizons of my mind, to go do rather than just imagine.

Trip is too touristy, expedition too grand, walking tour not quite what I’m aiming at . . . adventure it might have to be.  I am well-read in the literature of adventure, however, and know that although my plans and preparations will come to naught soon enough, and I will lose any pocket handkerchiefs I may take with me, both plans and handkerchiefs are useful things to have to lose.

That being said, I intend to spend the next few months of Fridays working through my preparations.  I plan to spend this next week making up a chart of the things I need to do over the coming months.  Right now I have: finances; my belongings; physical training; equipment; routes; books to read; things to accomplish beforehand; and miscellaneous as categories of effort.  Miscellaneous includes revamping this website, for instance.

More details to come soon!