Permission To Get Lost

When we travel one of the big things that I do is over plan. I plan the hotel, the meals, the shopping, the entertainment... I plan more than I should and sometimes, I get too wrapped up on how the trip should be. I get upset when things go wrong. My family took a small trip to a waterfall this last summer. Yes, in Kansas, we have waterfalls. It was only a day trip, but we drove around two hours to get where this beautiful waterfall was and when we got there... we were royally lost. We walked around this lake trying to find the waterfall for what seemed like a couple of hours and finally gave up. As we drove away we found a group of hikers and asked them where it was... While walking around this lake, we saw so many amazing wildflowers, deer and cranes. The opportunity to see all of this natural beauty was only available because we had no idea what we were doing. We climbed over large rocks and laughed about how funny we looked. Once we were told where we were needing to go, the real adventure had already been going on.

That day wore me down because it wasn't planned. I am a planner! But if I would have stuck to that imaginary schedule that I made up, we would have missed out on so much. The lunch that I wanted to do, turned into an early dinner and where we were going to eat was closed. We ended up at a small Jamaican restaurant that we would have passed by without thinking.

I am giving you full permission to not have a plan. I am giving you full permission to get lost and drive in circles, to stop at a park and just exist with your kids, and to get the gas station sushi. Well, maybe not the gas station sushi. In the moments where we feel that we do not have anything to do, we can actually connect with our families. Put away the planner and gps. Its okay... you have permission!