WE HAVE COME HOME

A NEW LEARNING
Christine and I arrived in Vancouver on Sunday afternoon following a two hour flight from Paris to Frankfurt and a ten hour flight from Frankfurt to Vancouver. Our family of children and grandchildren greeted us at Vancouver International. Oh, it was so good to be welcomed by the ones we love so much. I am pleased to be home. Seven weeks is a long time to be away from home. Christine could have happily remained in France. Small wonder since today she spent her waking hours washing clothes, drying and ironing. Home is equated with work for her. In fact, she returns this week almost immediately, to teaching music and babysitting two of five grandweeones. I am not useless. I did some early morning gardening, serious weeding, soil breaking, fertilizing and watering. I do mean early. Last evening, by the time we enjoyed our children and grandchildren, we hit the pillows at 9:30 pm which meant we had been awake for 24 hours. (Of course during the ten hour Lufthansa flight we each did a movie marathon with the monitors in the seats ahead of us. Four movies and two meals and our eyes were red and Advil hit the spot.) By 12am Monday I was up for a pit stop and then tried to find the sleep cycle once again, and woke once more at 3 am. That was enough. I made coffee and sat at the laptop to play catchup. By 6am I was in the yard with my gardening gloves and I worked my tail off, feeling I had put in a good morning, only to learn that it was still only 8 am. People were just leaving for work. We missed the leisurely Paris/Montmartre walks to to local boulangerie (bakery/cafe) so much, that we strolled this morning to the Wired Monk two blocks away and enjoyed sitting outside with coffee and a treat. We told ourselves we need to do this for ourselves at least once each week. I may share some photos and memories in the days ahead but I feel like I want to comment on some of the conclusions to which I came as I reflected upon my own life, our married life, the faiths that command the attention of the masses, the cruelty within our world, the cultures in different places, the sadness of some people and the generosity of others.

(One of my Photos of the Louvre Museum)