Woman goes on journey, comes home changed. What do you have to say for yourself?
1. You can’t have your cake and eat it too. Most things require compromise. In my zest for “having to be me” I realize I have to consider how being me affects my loved ones.
2. There is no place like home – as great and exciting as it is to travel, this morning as I walked Loca and encountered all my companion walkers at this hour – the white-haired guy who has a cheerful greeting; Sugar Pie, the Katrina rescue dog who so wants to be friends with Loca she goes nuts and runs around but can never get closer than a wisp because of her fear; the guy with the hand weights who always gives me a flirtatious smile but who frowned visibly when he saw me one day with my arm around Tatjana; the herons, the egrets, the ducks and the geese – the moss hanging fat from the heavy limbs of the oaks – the blue eyes of my friend, the dimples of another friend, the fuzzy beard and hyperactivity of yet another friend – the cat, the dogs – the mom (blue upper lip resembling a moustache from where she fell) – all of these things are so missed and taken for granted.
3. Grace under pressure – it’s okay to have a meltdown but lost luggage, fallen peaches, fermented watermelons, and no privacy in the bathroom are events that require you to buck up no matter how much you want to rail against the injustice of yet another day of not being regular.
4. Everyone wants to escape work – but then what would we do?
5. The whole world is curious – what is Croatia? where is Croatia? what are the people like? How is New Orleans? Do you like Obama? How much money do you make? What would this cost there? Here?
6. You can spend alone time with your lover only to find out you hardly exchange many words – then you are away for a second and you realize you forgot to talk about one million things that are important to mention – sometimes just hanging out and grooving conveys a lot but oh, there are so many stories to tell.
7. Resiliency is a global phenomenon.