I am snuggled in bed in the beautiful home of some even more beautiful friends. They are more than generous and are allowing me to stay with them for a while.
I feel overwhelmed at the thought of trying to catch up on this here blog. I think two months of my life will just be skipped as it is too much to try to recall the happenings. Maybe an update entirely of photos is in order.
I am home. It has been ten days and it feels as though I never left. The only strange thing about coming home was how natural it felt. It was uneventful (aside from reuniting with the people I know and love). Life just continued on while I was gone. I spent 200 days traveling the world, but my friends and family spent 200 days continuing their normal lives and I just melted right back in. It is both comforting and disconcerting.
I remember when Lindsey had her twins... I went to the grocery store the morning after meeting my beautiful nieces and picked up a few things. I distinctly remember watching everyone else going about their every day and felt an intense urge to loudly announce that my sister had just delivered two babies from her nether regions. The people I was watching looked bored and uninspired and I wanted them to know that a miracle had taken place. But that day was just another ordinary day for most people.
And it is similar being home. I got to experience all these incredible things, but they mean nothing to anyone else.
I locked my keys in the car the first time I drove to the grocery store and felt the need to announce that I hadn't driven in seven months because I was busy hiking in Colca Canyon, or seeing Machu Picchu, or strolling through the hills in Scotland, or riding a dirt bike to the equator, or eating larva, or snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef, or visiting Angkor Wat. I had an excuse for being so silly -- I hadn't driven a car in seven months because I off gallivanting. I felt that it was important for people to know as I saw a few customers roll their eyes at me. I sheepishly had to ask to use a phone to call my Dad to come help me. Now that I have written this I'm not entirely sure how it ties in...
I'm not expecting people to be amazed at my trip or anything -- it isn't that at all -- but life went on while I was off on my adventure. And that is awesome.
It feels like a dream, our trip. I have looked through a few pictures of our travels and it is surreal to think of the miles we covered over the last seven months. I feel as though it should have more of an impact on my life. I feel as though it should have changed me. I should be more compassionate, more thoughtful, more thankful, more intentional, more educated, more empathetic, more generous, and more inspired. And maybe I am. Maybe I'm not. I guess we will have to wait and see.
I am tangenting off so far I have no idea where I am going with this thing.
I am curious to see the impact this last chapter in our lives has on us. I wonder if it has changed us and how. Was it
just a vacation? What did we learn? How will we be inspired? How will it affect our daily life? Will it be an isolated event that we experienced with no lasting effects?
I cannot wait for Erik to come home from Alaska so we can sit with these questions and the many others that have been rolling around in our minds. I am interested to debrief with him and to see what we learned.
For now, it is nice to be home. It is comforting that life just went on for everyone else. It is easy to pick up where we left off. It's true, there is no place like home.
