Last week I became a grandfather again (number 4). While this is very exciting, it happened in Melbourne and I’m in Sydney. Of course, I have to go to meet her.
I’d recently been on a motorbike day ride with a group who rode from Melbourne to avoid the Melbourne Cup insanity and I was inspired by them.
For many years I’ve had the desire to do a long bike ride and so it seemed this was the proverbial “perfect storm”. I’d ride to Melbourne, meet my new granddaughter, be there for my grandson’s first birthday and give my other granddaughter a bit of a thrill – she refers to me as “Zede (Yiddish for grandfather) with the bike”.
For an instant the idea excited me. Then my left brain kicked in:
– The weather’s unreliable
– I’d need to take a week off work
– Too much going on at the moment to take that time off
– Would be away from Danita while she’s having a hectic time
– Where would I stay?
– It’s expensive
– Our next house-sit starts that week and we need to move
and lots of other objections and very good, sensible reasons not to do it.
Then the right brain put in its 2 cents:
– A trip like this has been on my bucket list (things you want to do before kicking the bucket) for a long time
– Gabe will never have another first birthday and he’s my other daughter’s first child
– I’d be there for my daughter’s birthday
– Living in different cities it’s rare that I get to see my children (and grandchildren) and so this would be a lovely opportunity
– You’re just finding excuses to put off something important
– You’re giving in to fear
with all the emotional elements that side of my brain has to bring into play.
Added to my personal toing and froing, astrologically Mercury has been retrograde. Without going into a lot of detail (you can read more about this type of thing in my Cosmic Compass blog), Mercury retrograde brings a time of confusion, lack of clarity and poor communication.
This conversation was gong on in my head for days and it was getting to the point where I really needed to make a decision.
And then something magical happened: Mercury went direct (stopped being retrograde) and I received an email from my daughter saying “It’s not often that Gabe has all four grandparents in town and he’s
lucky enough that you’re all going to be here for his birthday. So we
were wondering if you would all like to join us for coffee/morning tea
on Wednesday morning to celebrate?”
Decision made!! After receiving that how could I not go?
So, now I’m off to Melbourne on, hopefully, the ride of my life. Stay tuned for the report.