Although we have been in Australia for about eight weeks now, our hearts are really some place else.
Left behind in America. We told everyone we were getting ready to go back to our home country. We agonized about what was important to take back with us. We laughed and cried at farewell gatherings. We have made the journey across and yet, we have not quite landed here.
About a year ago, Craig and I sat comfortably on our couch for a movie night in, willing to let Frodo and his friends take us along on their quest. I remember first watching this epic-long movie and apart from the battle scenes, didn’t necessarily think much of it . Watching the story unfold a second time however tore up my heart. My eyes welled as Frodo and his hobbit friends returned to the Shire at the end of their adventures and he gives voice, almost for me…
How do you pick up the threads of an old life? How do you go on… when in your heart you begin to understand there is no going back?
We probably have complicated things a bit by choosing to return to another city, but I don’t think we are referring to geographical locations here.
It is hard to come back because we can hardly remember what we were like before coming to America. You don’t just assume your previous roles and fall into old routine. The river you step into again has continually been moving too. While everything appears to be the same, three years of absence makes you forget where and how things used to be.
Our hearts are still floating in America and slowly making their way back to Australia.
[July 2010 - Roasted red in Arizona: marveled at the desert landscape spotted with saguaros, overwhelmed by the size and beauty of the Grand Canyon, amazed at the spectacular view of the Moon, Jupiter and star clusters from Flagstaff, and breathed in the wonder of Sedona. September 2010 - Still in the desert of re-entry shock in Australia.]
