Defining My Life

My fortune cookie yesterday told me, “Accept no other definition of your life, accept only your own.”

I’m not sure what the definition of my life is, not sure I need one, but somehow that “fortune” seemed apropos. Today I head out on the road again after a week’s hiatus in Tucson to continue my cross-country quest, a quest that perhaps defines my life right now.

Oddly, I feel nervous. Or maybe it’s not odd. I’ll be leaving familiar terrain, maybe heading into colder temperatures and eventually rain and bugs, and even scarier, I’ll have many days in a row without the protection of solid walls (though there is always the possibility of a motel), but still, this trip is something I have to do. Want to do.

I’ll sit here a few moments gathering my courage, finish packing the car, then continue my eastward journey.

See you on down the road.

***

(Pat Bertram is the author of the suspense novels Light Bringer, More Deaths Than One, A Spark of Heavenly Fire, and Daughter Am I. Bertram is also the author of Grief: The Great Yearning, “an exquisite book, wrenching to read, and at the same time full of profound truths.”)

***

Tagged: cross-country journey, defining my life, gathering courage, road trip