Bon Voyage

Sezane blouse
Zara jeans (similar)
By Mumico sandals (c/o)
Loewe bag
Celine sunglasses
Vintage necklace (similar)
Maris Pearl Co. earrings (similar)
Location: Saint Mary’s Cathedral – Winnipeg, Manitoba

I can’t believe that in twelve years of writing a fashion and travel blog, I’ve never titled a post Bon Voyage. There’s no time like the present, I suppose… particularly since in the present, we’re only three days away from our departure for Athens.

In some ways, life is starting to feel almost back to normal at this point. I say almost, because let’s be honest, the news is still full of articles about vaccines and case counts, chief physicians continue to trumpet news of further waves of infection and impending doom and no one, including those doctors and journalists, can be sure what comes next. In those ways, nothing feels normal at all. I don’t mean to be glib, but after two and a half years of living from one calamity to the next, I’d really love to just accept mask wearing and regular vaccination as parts of life and move on to a new story.

Strangely, though, I find that part of this new normal less exhausting than the constant reexamination of how we did things before, the persistent need to make work by improving every process and system that was in place pre-pandemic. Nothing about our life up to early 2020 was perfect. I’ll be the first to admit it. It speaks to my immense privilege, but I was pretty happy in spite of those imperfections – I worked hard, but I balanced that with wonderful adventures. And while I didn’t love everything as it was, I recognized that many things were good enough as they were, and that sometimes, good enough really is good enough. Now, it seems, we need to fix and optimize everything all at once, dismantle the life we all knew and mostly loved and reassemble it in a new, better way.

I adapt to change more easily than most, but I find this both tiresome and tiring. We won’t be able to move on if we’re stuck on how to do it in the best possible manner.

And so I’m saying bon voyage… to myself. I’m taking a break, temporarily opting out of the process and running away to Greece for two weeks. I’ve resigned myself to the fact that, no matter how zealously I hoped for it in the early days, there will be no return to the normalcy we once knew. We’ve experienced a fundamental existential shift, and the way we live together will never be as it was, because time travel isn’t possible. We can’t go back. But we can return to familiar places, to scenes of happy memories from before, and pretend for a little while. That’s exactly what I plan to do on this trip.

This is the last that I’ll write until we come home. In the past several months, I’ve spent more time scribbling in my notebook than I have in years. Little of what I’ve put down has made it into this space. I think there is some fundamental shifting taking place in me, too. I don’t know exactly what that means yet but time, I’m sure, will reveal it. For now, I’m saying a brief good-bye, but I’ll be back. There’s lots of excitement still to come for us this year, including some old stories I’ve somehow never shared. And a new novel, slated to be released in the new year! In the meantime, bon voyage. I know it’s not traditional to say it when you’re the one leaving, but it seems appropriate. I wish myself a good trip, and I wish the same for all of you…

…even if you aren’t going anywhere further than the grocery store. I wish you well. Maybe the trip be simple and uplifting. Bon voyage!

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