Passport refund? Or a time we will remember, long after the ink has faded.

Yesterday, I chatted to a woman, who showed me photos of her travels to Morroco. Ornate archways that lure you through them to romantic dreamscapes, vibrant tiles on crooked walls, mismatched patterned textiles that somehow work perfectly together – quaint cobbled roads, foreign and unknown, yet hauntingly familiar.

I asked her how long ago she was there and she said “8 years ago, but 5 if you minus Covid” and I thought laughingly, yes…. I had to renew my passport during Covid and thought forlornly back then, on the lack of stamps compared to previous ones and & I often pondered if travel would ever be the same again. The places I’d been to and fell in love with or the places I was yet to visit, like Morroco. She said to me;

“I want a refund on my passport, for those 3 years”.

It’s a mixed feeling, the Covid effect. The desire to erase that time for all the angst it caused and restrictions to our freedom. For many, it seemed a stagnant time. For me there was a lot of positive changes. I worked from home pretty much the entire 3 years and have adapted to a majority working from home situation, since then. It has been invaluable to my mental & physical well being. The ability to balance out my days, my life. With self care, family responsibilities, exercise and working efficiently with different time zones. I realise it’s not for everyone, but it sure has been for me.

During those few years, my Mum had another stroke. This time, there was severe bleeding on the brain and the recovery was small, actually virtually nil. She moved straight from hospital to an aged care home and my Dad followed as soon as we could make it happen. I have a lot of feelings on it, which I will probably write here and then delete. Just so I can release them from my heavy heart without burdening you. It’s been a journey – no stamp on my passport for it though. Just a big one, within me, more like a deep permanent branding *sigh*

So, it’s been a long time since I’ve written anything on here. I will keep it short, just to (hopefully) get those juices flowing, maybe stimulate a habit of creativity. I guess this is more a post to provoke thought for anyone who reads it. How do you feel about that time affected by Covid? The impact on you, to begin with – the knee jerk reaction is often to wish it never happened, but I am a big believer that it all must happen good and bad for us to live a meaningful life.

What would your passport stamps have been, if instead of travel destinations, they were lessons learned. Relationships enriched, hardships suffered, new skills acquired, things or people that you lost?