I met my friend Terra in March, when we both went to Churchill, Manitoba to see the Northern Lights. We live half an hour from each other in Tucson, where I spend the winter.
Both of us have husbands who are five years older than we are. Both of us still want to travel even though our husbands are slowing down a bit in that area. So we decided to take a short trip together to see if we were compatible travel companions. Our requirement was that that the selected trip must be something neither of our husbands are interested in (I'd be going with Art in that case).
We decided to go with Road Scholar to Toronto for "Experiencing the Religions of the World." Today we finished up our last day of class. Tomorrow the group will visit the Royal Ontario Museum, with the afternoon free and the group gathering for a farewell dinner. Our plane leaves the next morning at 8 a.m.
We've had a busy, sometimes intense week. Our lecturer, Brian Carwana of the Encounter World Religions Center, has been fabulous, funny and knowledgeable. Here's what we've done in the last six days:
Tuesday evening: Talk on Intro to World Religions
*****
Wednesday: Morning lectures (1) "To See, To Be, To Do: the Landscape of World Religion" and (2) "Hinduism: Thou Art That. Afternoon visits to the Hare Krishna Temple and a Hindu temple. Evening visit to another Hindu temple.
OBSERVATIONS ON THE HINDU VISIT: Lots of light, sound, activity. Water. Fire. Food. Spectacle, I'd say.
*****
Thursday: Morning lectures (1) "Buddhism: All is Mind" and (2) Mormon: the Gospel Restored". Afternoon meditation at the Zen temple and a visit to the Cham Shan temple. Evening visit to a Mormon church.
OBSERVATIONS ON THE BUDDHIST VISIT: Very peaceful meditation time. And in the temple, I felt like I was in China - lots of red (happiness), icons, a prayer wheel. I think the Buddhist community in Toronto has money.
OBSERVATIONS ON THE MORMON VISIT: A conversation with a convert, a just-returned-yesterday-missionary, and an elder. Kindness everywhere.
*****
Friday: Morning lecture: "Islam: And Muhammad is His Prophet". Afternoon visit to a mosque and participation in the service. Evening lecture on "Judaism: A People Set Apart".
OBSERVATIONS ON THE ISLAM VISIT: I loved this. Many men, many women, in everyday clothes, prostrating in unison. It's a devout and humble act. So beautiful.
*****
Saturday: Morning visit to Holy Blossom Synagogue and participation in the service. Afternoon lecture (1) "Christianity: But I Say Unto You" and (2) "Evangelicalism: A Religion for the Modern World".
OBSERVATIONS ON THE SYNAGOGUE VISIT: Beautiful. Wonderful choir, gifted cantor and exceptional rabbi, Yael Splansky. We celebrated a bat mitzvah.
*****
Sunday: Morning lecture "Sikhism:Disciples of the True Name" and Guided visit of Evangelical Church and participation in the service. Afternoon visit to a Sikh Gurdwara.
OBSERVATIONS ON THE EVANGELICAL CHURCH VISIT: The Meeting Place is a megachurch with Bruxy Cavey as the Teaching Minister. He is a wonder. After the service he spoke to our group for half an hour.
OBSERVATIONS ON THE SIKH VISIT: Simple architecture, straightforward faith, many turbans! (I learned many Sikhs do not cut their hair or beards as "God has made me this way". They cover their hair with a turban.) We were served a simple meal.
*****
As it turns out, Terra and I travel well together. She reminds me when I leave my hoodie on a chair and I leave her alone when she seeks out a quiet place to read. Neither of us is a shopper. There is easy silence between us. We got separate rooms and found that allowed us to share meals and have conversations but still have privacy. I've never had a separate room when traveling without Art. I like it. We have begun a discussion about when and where a next trip might be.
Intense though this experience has been, it has been good to have time away from the busy-ness of volunteer obligations and decluttering. When I get home on Tuesday it will be time to prepare for the end of our summertime in Seattle and our journey to our Tucson winter.
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10 comments:
I would be pleased to meet another Terra, which is how my name is spelled too. How good she is the right traveling companion for you. Your blog friend, Terra.
Glad you found a traveling companion as I would have liked to do a decade ago when I was younger.
That sounds like a very interesting trip. How nice it is that you found the perfect companion to join you.
The program sounds wonderful, have seen it in the catalog and considered going...Finding a travel companion is not easy, and when you do they (or their spouse) has issues preventing travel. This happened to me twice.
Sounds like you have found a great traveling companion and how interesting to look into all the various religions. I think your having separate rooms was a good idea. Having a place where you can just be you can be restoring.
I have been following you on Facebook. It all sounds very interesting.
Sounds very rewarding. I of course have heard of Roads Scholar, but I've never done one. Maybe one of these days ...
I think it's great that you have an alternate travel companion. That is something I need to look into doing!
I have traveled with a few women and a couple were fantastic travel companions. I'm glad you had such a good first experience, enough to look forward to doing it again. I have friends (two of them from blogging) that I have met up with to travel together in their part of the world, and that's pretty great, too. It sounds like you learned a lot on this trip, in an enjoyable way, through the Roads Scholar program.
It sounds like it was a wonderful trip and you've found another traveling companion. The short synopsis of what you think of each experience is also interesting. Thanks so much for sharing this. :-)
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