Undaunted Joy #135

Of Finding that One Perfect Souvenir

(Behold! The Perfect Scarf!)

When we landed in France for our Christmas vacation, I knew exactly what I wanted to bring home as a souvenir. A new scarf. Not just any scarf. It must be a thick, bulky, long scarf. One that would keep me warm on the bluffs of Normandy and waiting in line at Notre Dame. And it had to be yellow. Not mustard or chartreuse. But a bright, happy yellow. Frankly, a yellow that says, Undaunted Joy. Is that too much to ask out of a scarf?

It would be my only souvenir, as I only had room for one.

Three years ago, my husband challenged our family to be a family who never checks baggage. We were to be a “carry-on only” family.

Of course, this was not much of a challenge for my husband and our two teen sons but me…formerly I was like a woman showing up to sail on the RMS Queen Elizabeth. I was never able to invest in actual steamer trunks but you get the idea. I had to have FITS, as the kids say. I needed various outfits for different occasions. Wear the same outfit twice? GASP! Who do you think I am?

Like I said, that was the old me.

At the end of 2021, exhausted of the global pandemic and all that came with it, my husband said, “since no one will hang out with us for holidays, let’s go to Europe and spend Christmas there.” We planned the trip, passports, necessary medical documentation, flights and accommodations in 10 days. Truly we did not even know if they would let us onto the plane until we were on the plane. Part of this grand plan was that we needed to have just one bag. Granted, it was a large travel backpack, but it is small enough that we can put it into an overhead bin, strap it onto our back as we dash for trains or metros, and never, never, drag it on cobblestones or hear it slam against steps.

The challenge was a good one. I learned how to minimize. I learned what was essential. And I learned how to create a color palette of clothes that all matched each other. That trip was 3 weeks long and at the end, I had grown tired of the two sweaters, four shirts and two pants I had brought along on the trip. And I simply threw away my pajamas which had been worn for 21 days straight, along with two pair of socks that had incurred a few holes on the journey. But I knew, I would never ever, pack more than a travel pack again.

So much in fact that in 2023, when I went on a month long solo trip, much of which became the basis for Undaunted Joy THE BOOK, (many of the beginnings of those reflections, you old timers read here on the Substack) I only took that one pack….for 30 days.

I learned the joy of washing ones underthings and even pjs and shirts in a bathroom sink. Then strewing them about on radiators to dry.

When I travel with family, we choose an Airbnb with a washer so we can keep on top of laundry between sightseeing.

With limited room in our bags, we are incredibly selective with any souvenirs we purchase on the way. We really do not buy much of anything, except for picture postcards, or a book that might lie flat in our bag.

I told everyone in our group about my coveted scarf. If I had more people on the hunt, perhaps I’d find it. How about this one? They asked, holding up the kind of scarf you wrapped around your head with sunglasses in a 1960’s convertible. No not that one. A few days later, I found it! They cried, holding a thin, cold thing, the color of a wet animal. No, not that one.

It’s always when you’ve just about given up hope. When you are walking up the 153 stairs of a Metro station in Montmartre, distracted by the lights of a 1980’s carousel and your travel mate says, hey is that it? Pointing to a booth in a Christmas market. You see an older woman with far too much makeup for a Monday afternoon, smoking a cigarette over piles of thick plushy scarves, every color of the rainbow. You pull out a yellow one. The exact colour you envisioned in your head. The exact colour of Undaunted Joy and finally, finally you say. Yes, this is it.

(A scarf so epic, my 11 yr old travel mate had to draw it!)

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