After just a few minutes searching, I found it:  a flight from Boston into Barcelona.  Only $241.  Perfect!

To use this flight required approval and help from three families in Spain, and agreement from other family members.  I proceeded down the list, checking in with the various people, adjusting, figuring out trains and calendars according to the information I had received just the day before.

Then the message came back from Spain that a key part of the equation had changed.  It does not look like it will work on their side, and the entire idea is thrown into the air.

Flexibility is a really nice word.  I think it is just grand when we are talking about being able to bend over a certain way, or the normal level of tweaking a schedule.  After three months of “being flexible”, I’m not so sure that I like either the actual word or what it represents anymore.

But, within hours, our family conversation is changing again.  Pretty much everyone has things that they were going to do… and now… not anymore. The opportunity is gone, or there is too much uncertainty or it just doesn’t make sense.  We turn to thoughts about things we didn’t think we could do right now, but now maybe we could.

When I view it that way, I almost push over to the other side.  There is this sort of “expansiveness” of possibility that I feel.  Or maybe that’s too grandiose, and I should just say “empty calendar”, because that’s how it really shows up in practical terms. 

How should those days be used?  My mind races with possibilities, sorting, beginning to think of choices and the ways something might come together…

Or maybe it is time to embrace what we’ve been dealt, instead of trying so hard to plan anything. 

Maybe the silver lining for me is learning to relax a bit, and remember to enjoy the moments as they come.