We arrive like strangers, trying to remember where we fit in.
Gone so long and having experienced such a different world this summer, we wander around reminding ourselves of the place we now call home.
We only lived here two weeks before jetting halfway across the world, so there are plenty of new discoveries to find and figure out--like "Look, wild grapes!" and "Where exactly is that smell coming from?"
It feels strange at first, settling in. But slowly, gently, our routine calls to us again like an autumn sweater waiting in the closet since last season.
Easy to slip into, comfortable when we try it on for size, we remember "Yes, this is the life we chose! This is the way it's meant to work."
Routines are like that, aren't they? Like many people (my children included) I sometimes rail against them--feeling they may strip me of my spontaneity or my desires to live life my way.
Instead, when we embrace the right rhythm for the right time, we find that what we want has been there waiting for us all along:
Freedom to live on our own terms.
We have carved out an incredible life here for ourselves. And it's so good to settle in again.
"Home
is a place not only of strong affections, but of entire unreserve; it
is life's undress rehearsal, its backroom, its dressing room."
~ Harriet
Beecher Stowe