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My Tin Cup
 

There is magic in my tin cup revealed in the dents and crinkles of its sides. The handle has been repaired but it still functions well. At the bottom of my cup you can find some marks from utensils that stirred the contents.  While there is some dirt on the outside put there by the elements the inside is clean and shinny.  This is my tin cup, I own it and it is mine. Many other possessions have come and gone in my life but still I can hold my tin cup.

 

I am sure when my tin cup was given to me as I arrived into Life it was shinny all over, well formed, and unused. It was my responsibility to fill my tin cup from the very first day and so everywhere I went so did my tin cup.  When there was knowledge to be gained I drank from my tin cup often as I could, when there were challenges I sipped slowly from my tin cup to get me through them, when there were sorrows my tin cup spilled, and when there was joy I filled my tin cup often.  Through the decades I carried my tin cup with me in the sun and in the rain.  Others looked at my tin cup and wondered and queried me as to why I carried such a thing all the time. Well, one day I may really need my tin cup I replied; yes, one day my tin cup will give me the greatest of pleasures, I thought to myself.

 

So on I traveled my personal roads of my life, carefully packing along my tin cup.  My young years were not necessarily easy but my parents took good care of me and my Father told me many times I could do whatever I wanted to do, go where I wanted to go, and be what I wanted to be. So on I traveled with my tin cup, filling it, drinking from it, and refilling it many times over, but sometimes my tin cup spilled accidentally, sometimes on purpose by me or others.

 

As I grew up many things came and went to and from my tin cup. My first life was active and busy with fun, joy, work, and studies. There so many people I had met around the World with many stories to tell and wonders to reflect on. There were so many special things to see and places to go that my excitement was overflowing as was my tin cup.

 

Then I chanced to meet in the distant world my wife to be and family to grow. This was all of my own choosing for once again I could see wonderful reflections in my tin cup. The years went by in my second life with new challenges, new places to live, and two children to help fulfill my life. We traveled together, we played together, and we lived many experiences together. Not all was the way we wanted but we were a Family and through Life we went together; at my belt all the time was my tin cup.  One day there was tragedy for my Wife had fallen and our Family Lives were changed forever and a large dent was put in my tin cup.

 

The winds of Life now howled through the handle of my tin cup. Hold as I might it often spilled and I had to take care but on with my third Life now traveling new roads, meeting new people, and going new places, always with my tin cup.  There were questions about how full my tin cup was and would it be enough to continue living, but with diligence, determination, and as graceful as I could I discovered new worlds once again filling and drinking from my tin cup.

 

Yes, I have spent many personal resources with abandon not thinking of any future needs for I still have my tin cup. Some close to me have commented that I should hold back and save for my future, but who knows when the end of my Life will come and who knows the discoveries I can make while I am still able and who knows what wonderful love experiences I can have still.  Hark, I have met a special person with whom I can relate and see a different World. Surely, success is mine with my tin cup.

 

Ages hence, many may look at my Life and many may say my choices were in error for in the end I had nothing. Well, in my beginning I had nothing also so perhaps Life evens out. Perhaps, at the end of my Life all my things were gone, but only the temporal things left me, and the thoughts I hold in the end will be of the difference I made for others.  Maybe I shall be without and sit on a street corner curb in the pouring rain holding firm to the handle but with a large smile considering all my Life, its joys, its sorrows, and its grace. Thankful I would be for every moment, now waiting for another stranger who would be my friend to drop something into my tin cup.

 

2007 Travel Initialization:

 

I was not really planning a major trip this year, but somehow things just turned around.  Perhaps the driving force was the opportunity to sail the Pacific on a significant voyage and perhaps it was finding a lovely lady, Isabel Uralde of Lima,Peru, who was willing to go with me. Then there was my long time friends Bob & Paula who had just retired and had on their list a Pacific sail to Tahiti.  Well, why not, my knees and eyes still work so I might as well spend my money now while I can. Who knows what the future will bring with such a ding-bat US President.

 

Then, of course, there was the back of my mind rumbling thoughts of returning to Chile and the National Park there and spending more time in Argentina. Now my immediate travels were beginning to shape up; also, it was going to be cold and rainy in Oregon this winter and the warmth of the southern hemisphere was an attraction.

 

Since I swore I would not travel alone again I proposed to Isabel that she accompany me on this Pacific voyage … she accepted. Boy, now I was committed and decided to visit Lime in July to meet Isabel. This quick trip cemented the potential relationship of two open minds, mutual respect, and desire to care.  Now some serious planning had to commence and after talking with Bob I moved ahead to continue our travels from Tahiti (to stay on the ship was going to be too expensive, besides I have already seen Bora Bora).  Our adventure grew to include Easter Island, Santiago, Punta Arenas, Torres del Paines, Ushuaia, cruise to Cape Horn, a couple of weeks in Argentina, then to Lima.

 

See, now that was easy. On the other hand, there was serious work now to make flight, ship, and hotel accommodations. Then I told Isabel about the whole trip and now she knew how she was going to get back to Lima from Tahiti.  Arrangements made and much of it paid for all I had to do was pack up.  Isabel flew to Miami to visit her son, mother, and brothen then came to Oregon. We went on a fall trip to Arizona for a Family dinner then back to Oregon where we launched our adventure with a two day flight to Panama on 29th of November, 2007.