This morning T. had a hair appointment. She’s been going to the same stylist for something like 10 years (when you find a good one, you keep her). So, we were a bit worried when she hadn’t replied to our emails about leaving for Scotland. It turns out that she’s excitedly planning to renew her passport, which she let lapse sometime around 1980. She remembers Belgium – with all of its unpasteurized milk, rhubarb which burned her mouth, and strangely aged meats – with quite a bit of fondness. She also recounted to us a couple who’d attended a wedding recently who came wearing kilts … and “danced the butt.” Whatever that means, and we’re not sure we really want to know.
Someone remarked that we’d not been around much, nor had been posting much. Well … no. We’ve not been paying much attention to the world at all, except where it pertains to us. We’ve been working away, sometimes more slowly than we’d want, but things are moving along, and we’re nearly packed. So, with our entire home in disarray, and our lives upside down, we had to just stop to reflect a bit on it all.
We’re beginning to feel as if, maybe, just maybe, we’re changing our roles in people’s lives – from the safe anchors who’re always around, to grappling hooks, bringing the world closer to them, and making it accessible, simply by being somewhere interesting.
So, despite our silences, and our absences, and our inward-looking attitudes of late, we’re beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel … and it’s not a train coming towards us.
One final thought, and that is upon the kindness of strangers. We have been truly blessed in finding people who are willing to help us on our journey, by doing things such as finding an extra class for D. to teach, or in being willing to be flexible about purchasing the car, so that D. can actually reach that last class (which he teaches the three days immediately preceding our departure). Along those lines, we happened upon an article discussing this kindness; it lined up so neatly with where things are today that we had to point it out, and to say “thank you” to all of our supporters and well-wishers.
– D & T
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
so true. I blogged yesterday about the small kindness in my afternoon. I only hope that I extend the same kindness to strangers that I’ve been lucky enough to receive.