Coming home….

I’m on the plane heading for Iceland now, it is minus 65.5 out side the plane and we are at 38K feet. We talked about this trip for years, planned for it, saved for it but at the end I was not at all sure it would happen. Not for any specific reason but so many things can happen and leaving for three weeks is not something we are accustomed to doing. I planted my seeds earlier this year to have them ready to go into the ground before we left and we worked hard squaring the gardens and orchards away. There was no way we could prepare the dogs for our absence but they were well cared for. There was no reason to stay so we came away.
I can truly say that this was the trip of a lifetime and I am glad we have made it. It was the only trip I have ever really wanted to make, to just drive around England and look at it and that is exactly what we did.
This journey was wonderfully full of beauty and history. The countryside in the Cotswolds, Snowdonia National Park, the Lake District…all of Cumbria and Hadrian’s Wall and Northumbria, Yorkshire, Kent, we circumnavigated England…not as impressive as Magellan but not too shabby.
It is hard to describe how I felt in some of those places. Stonehenge is just an impressive pile of stones. Hadrian’s Wall is, well, just another stone wall…we sure have a lot of those back home. And York Minster? Just another big church. But no. All my life I have read about Stonehenge and Hadrian’s wall and I have to say, If I could only go two places in England those would be my choices. York Minster if given a third. These places made my heart and mind soar.  I just cannot use enough superlatives so please consider that I have made a fool of myself gushing about everything.
Eric’s driving also qualifies as superlative. He drove every mile without a murmur of complaint, took me everywhere I wanted to go and left when I’d had enough. I should also mention that he planned our route, got our lodgings and car, our train tickets, and threaded our way through train stations. He made this fiftieth anniversary journey work and work well.
As far as being married fifty years goes….each day is lived for itself, each month, each year. It doesn’t seem like all these years have passed, just these days and months. Sometimes I look back, far back and remember my youth, grandparents, parents, our young children, all that history that is important only to me, only to us. What is truly shocking is how brief it all seems and how infinitely precious.
But my home is precious as are my dear family, my friends, the church and all the connections, the tie lines radiating out from my heart. I am content, more than content with my lot in life. I am happy: not happy on my own but because of all of you.
Sometimes writing this blog kept me up into the night but I have enjoyed it. Theadora once said that writing her blog from her year in Manchester took some sticking to it and I agree and it’s only three weeks. A year from now Eric and I are going to read all this over and set it in our minds again: our 50th anniversary pilgrimage.
Thank you, all of you who have followed us on our journey,
Clio