The Poppies Shed Blood and Other Updates

Field of spring poppies in Italy. Photo by Monique Kraan.

By Regina Winkle-Bryan

Every January, I choose a word or phrase of intention for the coming year. The word focuses my energy and embodies my goals. This year I chose “Trust the Process.” I still feel like this is an applicable phrase for 2020, though I have struggled to trust this particular process.

Now that we’re five months deep into 2020, however, I wonder if another word would have been more appropriate.

Innovation.

Hermit.

Protection.

Introspection.

Patience.

Zoom.

Netflix.

Flexibility.

May poppies are a joyful reminder that we are part of a cycle. Nothing is forever. Not even COVID. Photo by Jayne Burton.

I’ve been thinking a lot about flexibility this week.

We have decided to cancel our autumn journeys to Spain and Italy. Sigh. It’s a heartbreaker. But we need to be flexible and protect our clients during the pandemic.

Here’s where the innovation aspect of 2020 comes into play. Instead of tours in Italy and Spain, we will be offering new tours, closer to home, right here in Washington and Oregon. These will be a combination of day-trips and weekend journeys.

I don’t have a crystal ball, but my guess is that, for the rest of 2020, most of us will want to travel to nearby destinations and support local businesses before hopping on an international flight. Plus, Oregon and Washington are beautiful states, perfect for a visit under any circumstances, but especially perfect now.

Mary Jane Cuyler and I grew up in the Pacific Northwest, and we’re excited to show Bold Spirit travelers around the region this summer. Check out the Oregon Women’s Weekend in August 2020, and stay tuned for more soon.

We won’t see the poppy fields in Italy this year, but we do plan to lead trips in 2021. Photo by Dominik Scythe.

So, what about Italy and Spain? Our plan is to return in 2021. We have several tours available already for next year online. I am also working on a Camino de Santiago tour for the summer of 2021, so if you’ve always wanted to do part of that epic trail, next year may be your chance. I hiked the Camino several years ago and it was a transformative experience.

For those of you who need Italy in your lives now, we understand. We’re putting together a Virtual Tour to Italy this June. This will be an opportunity to get the scoop on where and how to travel in Italy so that you’re prepared to go once the world opens up again. This FREE event will be hosted online by the talented and knowledgeable Mary Jane Cuyler.

Finally, I was thinking last night about the Italian poet Ada Negri and her book Songs of the Island about the year she spent on Capri. I sifted through my bookshelf and pulled it out to read, traveling to the Amalfi Coast vicariously through her writing. I’ll leave you with one of her poems. I’ve been seeing lots of poppies lately on my walks in Seattle, so this one seemed appropriate.

Ada Negri celebrates Capri’s poppies in “Blood.” Photo by Anthony Salerno.

BLOOD

Among the grasses, the poppies shed blood:
I cannot pick them all,

and the ones I gather clot over my heart
as they die.

But I tear off a hundred and one hundred emerge
and the entire Island spurts out red:

Who stabbed it with a knife, who stabbed it
with love?

—Ada Negri, Songs of the Island