The seasons are changing here and our clocks have changed, as yours have, and our times are now less convenient than they were before. Your weather warms up and emails talk about the flowers blooming, and ours gets colder and shop windows are filled with boots and sweaters. Those of you in the north are somehow farther away than you have been, for reasons I don’t fully understand. Would this be homesickness or just jealousy that your weather is warming up while our tiny summer is ending?
Our friend Rob got here Saturday morning, and will stay with us for at least a month and maybe longer. Rob is our oldest friend, knew us while we were in college, was in our wedding. There is something remarkable about having our past here with us in some way. We tell stories about what we thought our lives would be like when we were 21, remember when we took things both way more and also way less seriously. We have a shared shorthand that is utterly familiar here in this foreign land. As we’ve hung pictures on the wall and seen our parents and our kids as babies all looking at us again, we are finding our history even as we face our life here with everything new all around us.
Here, to bring good cheer to one and all, are pictures of children and puppies. There isn’t anything better than that, no matter what the season, no matter what the hemisphere, and no matter how far away the children and puppies happen to be.
2 comments:
Frame your trip to the States as just the first of many, many, many. Let the intervals between your trips be short, short, short. Time and place more easily merge. The space and the differences will become smaller as you hold them all. Rob's presence in NZ closes the gap - as you'll leave him and all that he holds for you... and then you'll return to him. 'Home' will feel a much bigger place. Global.
With love from across a bit of water.
Patsy
Elisa and I are sitting here on a gray day in DC admiring the beauty not only of your village but your incredible children. You're gorgeous too, Jen! Naomi has grown soooo much! We want to visit!!
Love,
Carole and Elisa
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