Home

No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow.
-Lin Yutang

I arrived home, finally, Thursday afternoon. Driving into town, I was amazed at how much had changed in just four weeks, how spring gathers its March momentum to explode into spring. How the trees, bare when I had left, were now like green firecrackers bursting into bloom. Everything soft with life after the bareness of winter.

I pulled into my driveway and grabbed Babou to run up the stairs, leaving my unpacking for later. Inside, I noticed a bouquet of pink tulips on the dining room table! I continued on into the kitchen and saw a beautiful lunch and bottle of wine awaiting me. Hmmm...I continued out to the back yard where I found my friend, the bearer of all these sweet homecomings, having just finished weed whacking the back lawn which must have previously been in excess of three feet tall! The yard was beautiful; flowers blooming, now neatly mowed green, green grass, fig and plum trees filled with leaves, everything lush and happy.

I couldn't believe how lucky I was to get such a homecoming! I am stilled bowled over by it and am so happy to be home, so happy to see the old with new eyes. I have always loved traveling not only because I love seeing new things and ways people live, but because it really puts your own life in perspective. It is the perfect anecdote to ennui of all kinds.

Home and home

We should come home from adventures, and perils, and discoveries every day with new experience and character.
-Henry David Thoreau

Back, finally! I have been a very poor blogger this past week due to technical difficulties (no internet). I returned yesterday from an over weeklong trip to visit my parents. Not only do they not have internet, they don’t even have electricity in one of their houses! (Instead of one house, they have three small houses on their property.) It was really nice actually, to disconnect for a bit and just be. I have always loved to travel because it gives you such a good perspective, keeps your eyes open and looking, and being away has always given me a fresh vision and renewed inspiration. I guess this is my traveling, as I can’t get away like I used to (one day soon though). Sometimes I feel so inundated with communication that I need time away like I need to breath.

We stayed in the house without electricity. We made fires every night and talked into the evening illuminated by the soft glow of candlelight. We talked about how nice it was to not watch tv, to just have the chance to sit in stillness and connect with one another. If I could, I would light my home in candles and lanterns and not even have a tv. My husband would not take kindly to me taking us back to the 1800’s, he likes his tv a lot! So do I, but I think that it is really nice to be without it more often than not. There is something so centering about it.

I was nice to be back in my hometown but I am glad to be back in my adopted home. I like the energy here. Even if I am being quiet and doing my own thing I still feel like I’m not missing out on anything because I can just look out the window and watch the busy street for a minute—a balm to my restless nature. I love all the options I have here, the variety, the different beauty, the way nature and city combine, the anonymity you get from a city combined with the friendliness of a not-so-big city. For me, this is perfect, sitting still and watching the world go.