Blog 3576 – 08.20.2025

Serenity

In one of my favorite books and movies, The Time Traveler’s Wife, the wife wants very much to have a baby by her time traveling husband, yet after several miscarriages the time traveler decides to get a vasectomy without discussing it with his wife to prevent further heartbreak for her and losing another baby with his genetic time traveling anomaly. His doctor has speculated that the babies are time traveling from the womb.

When Henry, the time traveler, confesses his action to Claire, his wife, she gets quite angry with him and makes him sleep on the downstairs couch that night. During the night she receives a phone call from a younger version of Henry trapped out in the cold in her time. She grabs her coat and the keys to the car and goes to rescue him. He asks why she did not bring Henry and she says they are having an argument and that she needs some time away from him. The younger Henry asks, “How is that working for you?” with a smile and then adds, “He can really be an asshole at times.” They hug and young Henry gets warm and they both bask in the heat of their love and share an intimate moment in the car.

In a few days older Henry catches Claire smiling and says, “What is with you?” And she tells him, “I’m pregnant, remember that night you were stranded in the cold and called for help and I came?” She then adds, “We’re not going to fight anymore, if stress is causing the babies to travel we owe this baby the most serene gestation on the planet.” Henry and Claire have their baby, Alma, and she is a great joy to them.

Serenity or peace is the opposite of stress and war. We are most stressful when we are at war with ourselves. One of the great secrets of living a stress and war free life is learning to go with the flow. It is war and stress that turn this would be sweet dream into a nightmare. I find the answer in a childhood round we used to sing: “Row, row, row your boat gently down the stream. Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily life is but a dream.”

Sweet dreams, Pilgrims.

Your friend and fellow traveler,

David James White