Excuse my absence.
Last week my mother-in-law came to stay with us, wanting to experience road life and see some of New England. We had a great time and the schedule worked like magic. We got to show her a little of Massachusetts, and a good bit of New Hampshire and Vermont.
I didn’t write much. One, because I typically write during the time where I’m up in the morning and the family is not, but Sharaun’s mom is also an early riser so we took to taking a walk each day instead. Two, because I used her time here as a tool to help me use this stupid phone so much. So, a little digital break & some morning walking instead.
Changing gears… one of this things I enjoy about this trip is learning the different ways each of us in the family is experiencing it. Not to get all cerebral, but I find that each of us had different expectations going in, is getting different things from it along the way, and we’ll likely each be changed in different ways upon coming back.
When we really talk about it together, I learn all kinds of things.
Yesterday evening, walking the shore of Lake Champlain with Sharaun, I said something that made me realize that, all along, I’ve been thinking of the trip as the time between the end of one thing and the beginning of a new thing, a transition. To Sharaun and Keaton, however, it’s more like a long pause; a break from, but a return to, a single, same, unchanged thing.
This is a big difference of perception, and explains a lot to me about my attitude towards the trip’s drawing to a close versus theirs. As our last months and weeks and days pass, a brand new start is what’s ahead in my mind – all the nervousness and uncertainty and fear. In their mind it’s a return to normal – a joyous reunion with anticipation and welcoming and familiar comforts.
OK so I painted that a little more black and white than it is for the sake of making the point. Still, it was a realization for me.
Hugs.
Also written on this day...
- girls can like rockets - 2010
- cheesecake charity - 2004