至亲至爱怎么解释 无论到哪 都带上至亲至爱

无论到哪 都带上至亲至爱  

我的朋友Vikki总是随身携带有至爱亲人的祷告卡，不管是去澳大利亚广袤的内地欣赏无限风光，还是去希腊梦幻般的岛屿度假，她都将亲人“装进行囊”，一如他们就在身旁……
When I was a kid
I remember my dad used to sing an old
WWI song
“Pack up your Troubles
” while he was getting dressed for work in the morning. The lyrics from the chorus of the song play in my head often when I’m packing for a trip—“Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag and smile
smile
smile.”
Lately
with TSA regulations seemingly changing daily
packing my kit bag with clothes
toothbrush and Ziploc-baggie of three-ounce bottles seems more like trouble than fun
fun
fun.
For my friend
Vikki
though
what to pack isn't as important as whom to pack. She takes her family and friends everywhere. Vikki took her mother skiing in Mammoth last November and she took my mother-in-law to the ruins of Machu Picchu and Rome. Vikki has taken numerous people to exotic places like the outback in Australia
and the Greek Islands—all posthumously and in her bag.
You see
Vikki collects prayer cards from funerals and memorials of her loved ones and takes them with her wherever she goes. The cards
some with watercolor images of Jesus and others with pictures of a deceased friend and “in loving memory” printed beneath
are bound together with a rubber band and stashed somewhere in Vikki’s carry-on.
I'm fascinated by this practice and ask her about it often. I like to keep tabs on the number of cards she carries as it increases. At last count Vikki was toting around forty people. I’ve often thought that when the tally reached fifty-o
I’d propose some kind of card game we could play. My husband
Larry and I sometimes travel with Vikki and her husband
Bill
so we could while away the hours on trains and boats by playing some modified version of war
poker
or go-fish.
Obviously
I’m not as sentimental about Vikki’s collection as she is
but on a trip o years ago
I witnessed the power of those prayer cards.
Larry and I were in Peru with Vikki and Bill. We had just finished dinner at a restaurant in Aguas Calientes
when Vikki slid a small card across the table to Larry and asked
“Would you like to have your mom with you tomorrow when you climb Machu Picchu?” Larry was visibly moved by the gesture and slipped the prayer card from his mother’s funeral into his shirt pocket. When we walked the ancient
Incan ruins the next day
Larry had his mom with him and I could sense the joy he felt in her presence.
It was then I realized the enormous happiness Vikki must feel
having some forty loved ones near her at all times.
With all the rules today about what travelers can’t bring on a flight
maybe we’d all be a little more pleasant if we focused on the things we can bring and make sure they are what make us happy or at least smile
smile
smile.