Storytime: Traveling with a Broken Heart • The Spirited Traveler

Happy Valentine’s Day y’all! I wish you all an enjoyable, cute, happy, sexy, and fun day! Whether you’re celebrating with your sweetheart, your best pals, or taking some time to enjoy you solo.

After much hemming and hawing, and going back and forth on this day of all things “love”, I’ve decided to share a story of that one time I flew 5,000 miles with a broken heart. Grab you a glass of wine, champagne, or whatever you’re drinking and settle in for the nontraditional Valentine’s Day tale of me traveling with a broken heart.

In January of 2018, I lost my grandmother one day, and a 3 year relationship two days later. To say this was a bit to handle and process is an understatement. Neither loss was a complete surprise, my grandmother had been sick a while and we knew this was coming. And while the other “situation” was a bit sick too, I wasn’t expecting the end to come while I was freshly processing the loss of my grandmother.

After some thinking, I decided on Prague as my birthday trip destination. Prague is one of those places I’ve been wanting to visit, but pushed it down on my list. Mostly because my partner (at the time) frowned whenever I mentioned it. But in light of my new situation, I decided to book it. Why not do something I really wanted to do for a change? Why not be a little selfish and make myself happy for once?

I called my travel agent and booked it within 24 hours.

So, fast forward a couple of months. I’m in Prague having a great time exploring the city. There is so much to see, experience, & take in. I even sustained an injury trying to do entirely too much-lol. (Well, it’s funny now, it wasn’t funny when I was limping around for 3 weeks after.)

But back to my story, I truly had a blast (see my Prague experiences linked at the end of this post). Man, I was all up and down this city, hitting up the cultural sites, hitting up the historical ones, enjoying the food, and having a grand old time checking out the cocktail scene. Hell, I actually forgot I was grieving & nursing a broken heart.

Until that moment I didn’t forget.

The realization came out of no where. One afternoon, I’m patio pimping, chilling with a glass of wine, enjoying the midday sun and people watching. You know, relaxing, relating, and releasing; getting my mind right for the night’s activities.

Well, I’m sitting there, snapping selfies and looking at the people walking up and down the cobblestone streets, going about their day to day. I looked over to my left (because I felt eyes on me) and this gentleman smiled at me. I don’t know if it was the idyllic setting or the classic sense of romanticism in that moment that got to me, but out of no where, the tears fell.

Just streamed down my face. Right there. In the public. For all to see.

My heart was hammering, I felt several degrees warmer, and I could have sworn there was a hive a bees trapped in my head. I look back on the pic I snapped about 2 minutes before it happened and I can see it in my eyes. My mind had started to wander, taking me to a place I’d rather pretend didn’t exist in me at that moment.

And I let it happen. Why not? Then was just as good of time as any. It was time. Time to start processing and letting go of the pain, the hurt, the betrayal. There will always be 3 sides to every story (yours, their’s, and the truth), but for me, moving on means dealing with my truth, my shit, and getting passed it. There is A LOT I could say about the “situation” and how it came to pass, but I’m not. For one, I’ve moved on. For another, it really doesn’t seem that important in the grand scheme of things anymore. Funny how time and proper prioritization will do that for you. 😉

But I’ll always remember that moment. It was a beautiful day, gorgeous weather, great glass of wine to savor. Yet in that moment, I didn’t see a thing but old memories and dreams denied; all I could taste was dust. For however long I was in that place, I met the myriad of feelings head on. I’m not one for entertaining denial. Whenever I do, it just comes back to bite me in the ass later. No. I sat there and felt. And processed. And began the arduous task of letting go of what was to accept what will.

So when I looked back to left, the gentleman now gave me a gentle, sympathetic smile & toasted his wine glass at me. And just like that, that dark moment had passed. I smiled, snapped another selfie just because I could, and went back to enjoying my afternoon break.

While living life, you will experience highs and lows, it’s how this thing called Life is designed to go. I’m a firm believer that you can’t appreciate the sun, without a little rain. You won’t understand happiness without some pain. You need these opposites to help you appreciate the stage of life you’re in, to put it in perspective. Good or bad.

Life comes at you regardless. It may come fast, it may come slow, but come it will.

We all grieve in our on way. As long as it’s healthy, work your process. However, having a come to Jesus meeting, while you’re many thousand miles from home in a city you’d been dreaming about visiting since the 6th grade, *may not* be what I’d recommend for you. LOL!

But hey, it is what it is. It’s not how I expected part of my trip to go, but it’s how it went. And what I learned from this was never stop moving. Darkness will come, sometimes out the blue. But it only lasts a little while, the sun will shine again. You will taste the sweetness in life again.

“If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.” ~ Martin Luther King Jr.

And fear not, the rest of my trip passed in nothing but pleasantness and good times! This experience was just one moment, out of many great ones.

2018 Prague Experiences:

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