by Marianne Clyde
Just got back from a lovely trip to Rome and a cruise to the Greek Islands with our family. Great trip with a couple life lessons.
We are blessed with a large family. It’s so large that we have trouble finding time when all the kids and grandkids can come together. And when we can arrange it, it’s difficult to find one on one time with each one. So we came up with a wonderful solution.
We told each one of our 8 children that within the next couple of years we would like to take each of their families on a vacation of their choosing to give us an opportunity to deepen our relationships and create memories.
We just returned from a trip to the Greek Islands with an extra couple of days in Rome.
One of the things I had heard about Rome was to be careful of pick pockets on the crowded subways and tours. So I was ready. I took a small purse that I could strap over my shoulder with zippers and limited myself to a few necessary items: Phone, ID, credit card, sunglasses.
I was ready and prepared.
So as all 9 of us got pushed into the crowded subway on our way to the Vatican, I felt pretty confident that I had my act together. I had positioned my purse in front of me, had all zippers shut and was ready to go. Even made good eye contact with the people I was bumping up against.
We were almost at the first stop. One guy I had made eye contact with was pushing his way to the door. I was trying to get out of his way, then I felt it.
I small little vibration in the area of my purse. I looked down to see that he had unzipped it, and had my phone between his two fingers inside my purse.
I looked him in the eye and said (rather loudly), Hey! and bumped the phone out of his hand and drew the attention of a few people around me while my phone dropped to the floor. He scampered off the train as soon as the doors opened.
Fortunately, I was able to bend over in the crowd and pick up my phone off the floor. Yikes…what a close call! The “sucker punch” feeling of being violated and the elation of foiling his attempt to steal from me stuck with me for a long time that day.
I was delighted that I was aware and ready, and also able to remind the kids of the dangers around us as well as the excitement and blessings of being able to travel in this way.
Even so, my daughter-in-law was not so lucky the next day…
She had also carried a bag that draped across her chest, but took it off and hung it over the back of her chair while we had breakfast at a little coffee shop with very few people in in it, thinking that there was no danger. But you can never let your guard down because before breakfast, her bag was gone, with credit card, phone, sunglasses, (fortunately NOT her passport!). None of us saw anything.
So the point of the story is that, don’t let new adventures scare you. Just make sure you assess whatever risks are involved and take steps to mitigate those risks and never let your guard down.
Life is to be lived. You just need to plan for it, so it doesn’t pass you by and you live it YOUR way. Knowing what the risks are doesn’t make you immune to problems, but taking steps to minimize those risks sure helps.
Action Step: I am here to help you develop a detailed plan to make the impact you want to make. Schedule a free call with me and we can discuss your options. I’ll give you some good free suggestions on how you can get started.
