{"id":526,"date":"2026-09-06T14:36:36","date_gmt":"2026-09-06T14:36:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lostmymindfulness.com\/blog\/?p=526"},"modified":"2026-09-06T14:36:36","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T14:36:36","slug":"i-second-that-emotion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lostmymindfulness.com\/blog\/epic-adventures\/i-second-that-emotion\/","title":{"rendered":"I Second That Emotion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Journal Entry: August 29, 2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Filling my water bottle from a fountain in a town someone forgot to name. Germany on the border of France. Judging from the trail markers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My compass sits on a French tourist map lined up with due North. I hope. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The high tension wires will send it spinning. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trying to remember where my grandfather was stationed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Dropped behind enemy lines .” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keeps popping into my head.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That would be my uncle. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wrong country, wrong war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was a paratrooper in Vietnam. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crazy enough to jump out of a helicopter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crazy enough to volunteer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Twice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They say it runs in the family. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A car pulls in the drive across the street.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mom jumps out , runs into the house without turning in my direction. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The daughter, a toeheaded youngster is heading to the garage to do what she can to help bring groceries inside. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She sees me and looks confused. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I smile and give a short , two finger salute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She smiles and waves<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dad notices she is outside and quickly steers her by the shoulder towards the door. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everyone inside and i realize I am scaring half of Europe to death with my backpack and bedroll and too long , too old for this shit, hair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My thoughts wander to the past and the future and back again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The wind blows the map onto the ground. Doestoyevsky’s, The Idiot, turns out to be heavy reading but not a great paperweight. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The threat of thunderstorms draws me back to the present. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Folding the map and hooking the compass to my beltlloop, checking to be sure it’s packed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Walking past the family house , turning back to watch the thunderclouds approaching. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I see the young girl in the upstairs windows, watching, worried.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I smile and give another two lingered salute. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She smiles and waves,.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She only wanted to be sure I am okay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Journal Entry: August 29, 2026 Filling my water bottle from a fountain in a town someone forgot to name. Germany on the border of France. Judging from the trail markers. My compass sits on a French tourist map lined up with due North. I hope. The high tension wires will send it spinning. Trying to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":540,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-epic-adventures"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lostmymindfulness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lostmymindfulness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lostmymindfulness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lostmymindfulness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lostmymindfulness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=526"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/lostmymindfulness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":545,"href":"https:\/\/lostmymindfulness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526\/revisions\/545"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lostmymindfulness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lostmymindfulness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lostmymindfulness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lostmymindfulness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}