Home Again

Well hello!

It feels great to be drinking my tea at home and typing up a blog post this morning. We are back from our cross-country road trip! Our vacation took us across six states (Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California) and to the doorsteps of so many family members and friends that we don't get to see often enough. Between my husband and me we have five siblings and we got to see three of the five. My husband visited a flight school friend, two high school friends and a college friend, I met an uncle on my husband's side for the first time and spent three days with one of my best girlfriends from Notre Dame. In between we had two days to ourselves at the Grand Canyon. Oh, and that train trip I took from San Francisco to LA, the one that takes 12 hours? The countryside was just as wonderful and scenically beautiful as I'd imagined (that train ride is a blog post in itself, actually).

The whole trip was a spectacular adventure we will not soon forget. It was the perfect way to celebrate my husband's newfound freedom and to end our time in Alabama. It was a welcome distraction from some of the stress that's been on our plate and it gave me so much perspective on my own life. 

When we were at the Grand Canyon I remembered a trick I'd heard once. Here it is: when things feel overwhelming or you feel sad or discontented, picture yourself throwing your worry into the Grand Canyon. The Grand Canyon represents every moment of your life, from birth to death, the past and present and what has yet to come. Imagine today's worry and how infinitely tiny it is when up against a lifetime of joys and struggles and triumphs and everyday life. I had used this trick before but doing it while standing on the South Rim with the Grand Canyon before me was really powerful. Finding peace through perspective.

We got back last night which was exactly, to the day, four weeks from our move to Charlottesville. The house looked a little bare when we got home because of all the packing I did before I left, and it made things feel so real. Our brand new lives are on the horizon! The plans are set, the truck is rented and the piano movers hired, the lease has been signed. June 9th can't come fast enough.

Today will be spent doing laundry and getting groceries and spending some much-needed time alone to recharge my batteries. Regular life after a long and lovely vacation might be a letdown to some people, but to me it just reminds me how rich and wonderful normalcy can be. I've written about it before--traveling is incredible but so is the joy of coming home. 

To all of our loved ones who made this trip so beautiful--thank you! We had the time of our lives.