Later that afternoon, I found myself back on their site, reading more about it. It became a bit of an obsession (in a good way) and I'd go back daily to look at the itinerary and daydream about all of the wonderful places to see and amazing things to eat and do.
https://www.vikingcruises.com/oceans/cruise-destinations/world-grand/2020-world-cruise/index.html
This is a new cruise offered by Viking, who are consistently named the World's Best cruise line and I really, really want to go on it! It starts and ends in London, so I'd get the bonus of being able to visit my beloved friends in England either before or after (or both)
During this time, the lottery was up over a Billion dollars, yes, that's Billion with a B! So, I figured, 'someone has to win it, it might as well be me!' and I bought a ticket. As you can see, I didn't win, so I'm back to trying to figure out how I can go.
After looking at the map of the places the cruise travels several times, I found the page that spells out the itinerary day by day. I also found their curated list of books to read to get ready for the trip. So, I wrote down the list of books in my journal. I'd look over it now and again and realize I'd only ever read one of them. Ha! Today, I went online to our library's card catalog and noted which books are available in our county library system. Of the 64 books listed there, only 24 of them are in the county system, with most of those at a local private college's library. Only three of them are available at my local library and they are all currently checked out. Looks like a trip to McDaniel College is in my future today.
On the 12th of this month, I started an Excel spreadsheet. I made columns for the day of the trip, the date we'd be in that port and the day of the week it was, so I could try to keep the Sabbath a bit more holy on Sundays. Turns out, thankfully, that many of the Sundays are either a sailing day or in a port where the ship stays for a couple of days. I also included my top choices - up to three - of their available guided tours or excursions for each port.
Since our Church is a worldwide church, I thought it would be amazing to contact the ward or branch in each city and meet some of my Worldwide Family! Wouldn't that be fun to meet people all over the world who have the same beliefs and who are already part of my "tribe"? So I have columns for the ward or branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for the area where we'd dock. I haven't figured all of that out yet.
So, after I'd done all of this, I was feeling a little silly and obsessed over something that seemed unlikely that I'd ever get to do. I got in the car to head to work to fill the kiln and a song came on the radio. It was a very old song that's in my iTunes play list by the B-52's called "Roam" The lyrics, in part, say:
"...Take it hip to hip, rocket through the wilderness,
Around the world the trip begins with a kiss.
Roam if you want to,
Roam around the world.
Roam if you want to
Without wings, without wheels,
Roam if you want to,
Roam around the world..."
Well, that seemed pretty auspicious and specific! I laughed and prayed "Heavenly Father, PLEASE let there be a way for me to do this!" and my heart just about pounded out of my chest. Usually, that's how the Spirit witnesses to me that this is the truth or something I should do. I've learned to listen to that kind of a prompting. So, I started thinking that maybe I really AM supposed to do this. It's been in the forefront of my mind now for a couple of weeks, which is pretty unusual in itself. But how can I possibly get that much money?
I got out of the car, went into work and started working on the pottery pieces that needed to go in the kiln. I'm the only one in the studio during kiln time, since the studio is closed on Mondays, so I listen to General Conference talks on my phone. I had been listening to April 2017 talks, so I clicked to the next talk and turned it on. As my hands were in the glaze bucket, mixing up the clear glaze by hand, I stopped with my dripping arms in mid air, as I heard the speaker. It was a talk by L. Whitney Clayton and it was called, "Whatsoever He Saith Unto You, Do It!" In the silence of the studio, his voice rang loud and clear in the kiln room, telling the story of Mary, the mother of Jesus, who told the servants at the wedding in Cana to do whatever Christ told them to do. Then he likened that to us, who when the Lord tells us that we should do something, we should do it - immediately.
So, how do I do this? How can I possibly do this?
I looked on the Viking Cruise Lines page to look for jobs, searched a couple of job sites to see if there was a way I could work for them and go on the cruise in that way. Nothing really jumped out at me. So, the next idea I had was that I could contact Viking and see if they'd hire me as a Social Media person to write about this new cruise. I don't know if that's a good thing to do, but I'm thinking about it. So, in the meantime, I thought I'd read their booklist and talk about it here, along with the places the cruise will be visiting. Maybe something will come to me. Have any ideas?
Until next time!
Judi
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