There and Back Again

The last two weeks have flown by so quickly, my head is in a whirl trying to catch up again. Or maybe that's the jet lag? Either way, my head is a little whirly.

At this time, two weeks ago, my little family ad I were boarding an airplane to fly to New York - to board another airplane to fly to Seoul, Korea - to board a final airplane to fly to Bangkok, Thailand. At which point, Tuesday night, 11pmish, we were greeted by my parents and whisked away in a car to Hua Hin where we spent the next 10 days enjoying tropical weather, good food, and wonderful company.

Then Saturday the 24th at 12:30am we reversed the whole process, managing to arrive back home by 3pm, still Saturday the 24th. Time is a funny thing.

It was so wonderful being home. And what I find most significant is that it was still home. Which reinforces the idea that home is not a place but a concept. I was able to walk into a house I've never seen before (except in pictures), live in a town I've never lived in before (although I've been there numerous times as a child as we frequently went to that particular town when we were going to the beach), and feel completely as if I had come home.

Granted, much of the furniture of the house was familiar to me (although not all), and the pictures on the walls reflected the childhoods of me and my siblings, and even the silverware and the dishes and yes even a few swim towels are all those I grew up with...and that all helps.

But it's the foods we ate (and the fruit--oh how I have missed Thai fruit--mangoes that melt in your mouth, bananas that have true flavor, som-o, papaya, guava, I must stop raving...), the language that surrounded me, the smells and even the weather that we were blessed with, all of it just felt right. I was finally home.

And now, as I sit here early in the morning, listening to my cottage girls getting ready for school, trying to wake my brain up entirely after a rough night with a little boy who hasn't managed jet lag well at all (its 11pm, let's play!!), and to find my rhythm again, and I find that here, too, I am home. But it is a different home.

It's the home that has been mine in 13 years of marriage; mine through work and tears and adult growth. And the foods are different, the sounds and smells not at all the same, but my home it still is.

And I am satisfied.