After a great journey, there is a lingering joy and desire to share the details with people, for those you love to feel some measure of the impact you felt by experiences in a foreign land...
"I look the same as I did, but I have changed... oh, won't you try to get to know me again?"
Then there are wonderful days around home that sound so mundane by description (which is why people who have not traveled also deserve to be rediscovered).
Here is my mundane joy.
Yesterday, I spent the day at my family's house with some of my sisters, my mom, and SJ, cleaning up a section of the yard's landscaping. We got so much done!
Whereas, a traveler might say,
"Yesterday I was in London, and I rode the London Eye, I visited Big Ben, several museums, and five other famous sites. It was awesome!" The listener wouldn't be able to disagree, really, since visiting famous sites is supposed to be awe-inspiring (even if, in reality, it is possible to be absolutely bored or unhappy while visiting famous places!)
I started this blog because I was just traveling myself, and it was ABSOLUTELY AMAZING, but a week after my return, I hit a wall of a fog, depression, reverse culture shock. The shock was not that people weren't overwhelmingly curious about my experiences (I had stories to tell!) But realizing people expected me to be who I was, to act as if I had not been gone. I have treated returning travelers the same way. People at work are happy to have me back... but they didn't really give two beans about what I was feeling inside about my travels. That is a sulky comment: of course they would listen to my stories given the chance. But as is common, they didn't really have any curiosity that spoke for itself. After all, they had been holding down the fort; they were exhausted from an entire summer of physical labor, while I had been off having the time of my life, studying my brains out, and then traveling around the world.
But my mundane joy, yesterday, was not at all mundane. The actions don't speak for themselves, though. There is immense subtext that made the day so joyous!
Here are just a few of many elements of the subtext:
In the last two years, Dad had a stroke.
Mom's gardens went completely wild.
Family healing.
Teamwork among siblings.
Pushing through the first really chilly day of fall to accomplish something massive!
Laughing and singing.
SJ monkeying up a tree to saw off a couple limbs and rocking my aviators to keep sawdust out of his eyes.
Cheerfully picking up a million black walnuts with the help of two cheerful sisters (and a third who brought hot refreshments!)
Pushing on!
Raking, weeding, trimming.
Revelation of the true shape of things!
Coffee and cinnamon scones!
Healing of a sorrow that I had not moved home last year to plug away at this task alone... doing it as a team is so much better! This gave me so much peace!
Bless the Lord, oh my soul!
Bless the Lord, who sent sleet instead of rain so we could keep working without getting wet!
And Mom, MY MOM, glorifies God in her humble, hard working, mild manner of wonderful teamwork and leading the way!
And hugs. They do something to your heart, you know.
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