Home again ...

"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes." Marcel Proust

A few weeks early, we found ourselves traveling home to help Pat's family care for his mom, who was diagnosed with a brain mass and needed surgery and rehab care. Bernice is an amazing 90 year old mom, grandmother and great-grandmother who came through her surgery well and is receiving wonderful rehab care in Grand Rapids, Michigan. We are so grateful for the time we were able to spend with her, and to be honest we must have been ready to come home because we hadn't yet planned our Galapagos Islands adventure. It will have to wait for another time ...

So we've been thinking about how to put these five months in perspective, to sort through the images, experiences and relationships we have had so that we won't forget or lose sight of things. Which called to mind Proust's quote ... perhaps the best thing that happened over the past six months is that we have begun to look at the world differently. Whether in northern India seeing displaced Tibetans struggle to save their language and culture, or in Africa as children and their families struggle with poverty and illness and educational barriers but still retain their smiles and joyful dispositions, or in South America as committed and tireless citizens work to provide better lives for their communities, we see ourselves as connected and involved. We have been so blessed to have walked a while with these people, and we will hold them in our hearts forever.

We aren't really so different after all. Our countries look different, we look different, our language and customs and faiths may be different, but we all seek peace and joy in our lives, and we all love our children. In Grand Rapids, Michigan, Bernice was surrounded by her children and grandchildren as she faced this surgery, and a few days later welcomed her 15th great grandchild, Brady Haarman, into the family. And in so many parts of the world, generations work and live together in a life long struggle to thrive amid so many obstacles. Family, and the importance of connections between people, are the same the world over. If we understand that, how can we not live in peace?

So with these "new eyes", here are a few things we hope to see as we return to our lives in America:

- More possibility than worry in every day.

- Opportunities to simplify our life, so that we will have more to share with people in other parts of the world who ask for so little, but can really use the help.

- Valuing the connections that have made our life so meaningful by taking more time with friends.

- Continuing to trust that our adult children, who survived (possibly even thrived?) without us for six months don't need for us to waste energy worrying about them.

- Taking care of our bodies, and remembering that the carbs we crave don't have feelings and won't be hurt if we refuse to eat them. We have both lost about 25 pounds with eating less and walking several miles a day, and we feel better than we have in many years.

- Chances to thank our employers, patients and coworkers for allowing us to go "walkabout", because now we understand how really badly we needed the break.

- Ways to challenge, each and every day, the message brought to the American people that we are better off not caring about the world around us and isolating ourselves and our vast wealth rather than sharing our concern, compassion and abundance.

- Time to appreciate each other and the relationship we have together. After six months, it's nice to realize that we are both a bit sad to have to share each other with others again, and that we never had a day where we were sick and tired of each other's company. It is a wonderful thing to be married to your very best friend.

Who knows, maybe "walkabout" is also in how you see it. Maybe every day, when worry and anxiety and feeling overwhelmed and frustrated and over responsible start to creep up, we'll be able to sit back, take a deep breath, close our eyes and say "for the next five minutes I'm going walkabout to Zanzibar ..."