Houston Day 327 - reflections from my library

Teach me how to be someone

Whose heart can explore

While still staying here.

Let this be the year we both travel.

("Goodbye, my Love" from Ragtime)

I'm sitting on Auntie Lallie's old couch on the wide landing in our house that we've designated our library.  It's a beautiful place to be in the early evening because the sun comes through the enormous window over the staircase opposite, and it's also usually pretty tidy, so unlike the rest of the house, I can enjoy the space without having to clean up first.

We didn't decorate it this way on purpose, but I am surrounded by momentos from our travels and from around the world.  In front of me is the wall-hanging Lucas bought in Tibet, beside me is a painting of the outback that used to belong to Grandma, and to my left I can see souvenirs and gifts from Japan, England,Thailand.  There's also a picture in an ExxonMobil frame of us sitting on a longhorn; 3D Jesus; greeting cards; photos, posters and awards from shows I've done and seen; the "bimbo" toy that was made for my first birthday; and one of the many crocodiles given to Lucas during his PhD.  Plus also a billion books (the ones whose quantity made the packers complain).  And that gorgeous photo of me and my sisters taken on my wedding day that reminds me how much I treasure them every time I see it.  This is an interesting room to be feeling reflective in.
In some ways I feel like we've been here so long I'm getting twitchy (gosh I have a short attention span sometimes) and in other ways I'm reminded gently of how new we are here.  When I meet new people and tell them how long I've been here they usually react with a comment about it not being very long.  But I think the twitchiness is mostly due to the six weeks of underemployment (ending in two weeks, YAY)....and also, ironically, I think not being as fully grounded and embedded here means that my mind is not fully engaged all the time.  Sometimes in my life I feel really quite stupid, and then sometimes I am amazed about how much my mind is just always begging for more.