Companionable Solitude

Every other week he pulls the brown rolling suitcase out from under the bed, asks me what he wore the last time he went because he doesn't want to wear the same shirt visit after visit, leaves before my feet hit the floor and returns the next day after we've clearly landed in dream land.

This regular travel added, as an after the fact, in his career. The job he does is not an assumed travel role. It's been hard on him and months ago he asked me to go. To go is no simple task of a plane ticket but with the help of Grands we made it happen. His giddy heart at traveling with a companion it just made me smile. Up at the crack of dawn I followed his lead through the maze of security, walked at his brisk pace through the terminal, sat at his side holding hands on the plane.

Romantic, restful. Words I would not equate to a business trip alongside The Man. Words he didn't equate. He still had meetings and lunch appointments. I spent hours alone in the room, at Barnes 'n Noble, walking in the sunshine and then the pouring rain. I realized I had not been alone, by myself, able to finish a thought, read an entire page, look strangers in the eyes and ponder their lives from a park bench in too, too long.

We drove the rolling hills of Alabama and Tennessee. We rode in silence. He pulled over when the stop light proved too short and I didn't get that snapshot.

We marveled at beauty and rolled in the charm of small towns. We drank coffee from a one of a kind little place and danced with joy at the opportunity to experience it.

I love The Man. We had two days of Companionable Solitude. Time to say things we wanted to say and then time to just be. It was another brick laid on the foundation of this amazing journey we're on together.