Do you have any idea what peregrinations are or what the word means?

I didn’t either until it was our Toastmasters club’s word of the day. We had to use it in a speech or an evaluation.

You could look it up but I’ll save you the trouble. It means traveling from one country or place to another, wandering about.

All life is a peregrination even if you never leave home. My wife’s life has been one peregrination after another. As an Air Force brat, she attended 3 separate schools in a single year, 2 of them in different countries. Between the 2 of us and our sons, we have lived in or visited more than 20 countries.

FRIENDS RETURN from vacation trips, regaling us with stories of the sights they saw. When I ask about the people they met or talked with, they look at me blankly. They missed 90% of the fun of travel.

In my peregrinations, it has been a privilege to mean common folks and distinguished people – presidents, prime ministers, soldiers, sailors, firefighters, police officers, judges, well-known actors and actresses, writers, directors and producers.

I interview everyone who will talk with me. 90% of them do. They are surprised and flattered that someone will take an interest in them. Many are starved for appreciation, attention and recognition. They get little of it at work or home.

TO ME EACH day is a peregrination.

I don’t even need to leave home during this pandemic. Readers call and email me with questions and suggestions. A few complain that we misspelled a grandchild’s name in Aunt Tilly’s obituary.

I sometimes imagine that they think I sit around putting such errors into stories about their loved ones. It would be nice if that kind of time was available.

You might think of mental and emotional peregrinations as part of your purpose in life. Here are several purposes I’ve found for my own life. You might try them.

• Share my love for others without reservation, conditions or demands.

• Be unselfish, compassionate and give generously to those in need.

• Accept myself, my purposes and what talents God has freely given me.

• Acquire wisdom. It would be a shame to fail to learn from all the mistakes I make.

• Enjoy life’s mystery and beauty. I try to see life with the wonder of a child.

SOME PEREGRINATIONS are journeys of the mind and soul rather than the body. That is a special gift we have been given.

In a dream the other night, my wife and I visited a place we had never been. It was remarkably detailed and in color. We ran into friends we had not seen in years. Such vivid dream experiences may have interpretations but this one eludes me.

RECURRING DREAMS have themes.

After my father’s death, he would appear in my dreams. He never said anything and I could never touch him. But it seemed that he was trying to contact me.

Other dreams are of loss. I would be desperately seeking my wife and children. I feared something had happened to them.

What dreams haunt or help you.

Write me at JerryBellune@yahoo.com

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