It has now been a week since I got back from the USA. It was hard to adjust back to life here. I think that it is always hard to leave home. There is a set of problems you can escape when you leave everything and everyone you know to start a new (temporary) life. When I came to Paris, I became detached from relational issues by mere distance. But, I have decided that however painful relationship problems can be, they are worth it because relationships add so much to life. We are relational people.
I got an ipod for Christmas, and it has already changed my life here in Paris. It is great to walk down the street listening to my brother sing Christmas songs (even if Christmas has passed). There is also something really beautiful about listening to pensive music while riding the metro underground and watching the lights fleet from one station to another, or walking through Paris in the rain with a soundtrack. I love it.
I got to meet my mom’s cousin while here for the first time in my life. It is so fun to meet people you are related to in a foreign country. Thanks for lunch and the wonderful chat, Linda and John!
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3 comments:
what lovely thoughts! thanks mar!
I so agree with you about the relational aspect of moving to a new country -- especially when you have as supportive a network as both of us do. In one sense, all relationships take work, so it's a relief not to have the pressure to keep working so hard on them. But then, if you're planning to return to that situation (as both of us are) it's a little more complicated because you certainly don't want to leave those relationships completely unattended for the better part of a year! And so we get a break, but we also have to learn how to keep up those relationships over great distances and therefore in new ways. phew! Plus we have to build new relationships where we are, or the time here will be miserable. In short, it ain't easy! But it's made tons easier by hearing the voices and reading the words of your loved ones.
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