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People keep welcoming me back to the “real world.”  How funny that saying is— like the place I’ve been the last seven weeks is a fantasy or play world, not real.  I can attest to the fact that the ground was hard and the hills were high, the food was fattening and the wine was intoxicating, and the people were very, very real.  Never-the-less, I am happy to be back in my “normal,” space.  Coming back to work feels good, my bed feels good, and watching Bodhi jump around and not leave my side feels incredibly good.  But I have every intention of not letting the normalcy set in.  I assume this will be easy to begin with, seeing as in two days it will be Thanksgiving and in one month it will be Christmas, then New Years, and then January.  It’s more time off and the feelings of the festivities make the daily not so mundane.  Not that day to day is mundane, but I’m sure you have an idea of what I mean.  It’s easy to get into a rhythm that is more about convenience than exploration.  I realize that this rhythm is difficult not to fall into and isn’t entirely bad, but I do know that having Europe to look forward to kept me kind of held up in the months leading up to the date on my plane ticket.  I looked toward that on days I struggled, I looked toward that when work got difficult, and I looked toward that when I was bored or unsatisfied or whatever.  But now I am back, and life will go on hopefully with a new presence of mind to appreciate the home I yearned for while I was gone. 

As soon as we got home, we rode our dirt bikes to a piece of land that's for sale not far from away in Murphys.  The spot overlooks the valley below and different vantage points show you different things.  It’s beautiful.  The trees are yellow and orange and red.  The ground is wet and soft with rain, and the property has two outdoor bathtubs, side by side, like they were waiting for two people to sink down holding hands into a life saturated by nature.  There is no house on the property, but there are the bathtubs, a Jacuzzi powered by firewood, and an outhouse.  There is room for the Huggy Hut and there is plenty of room for tents.  It’s hard not to imagine a place like this in my future- seeing kids running around barefoot, climbing up to swing out on rope swings into close by swimming holes, or campfires and marshmallows and friends and family and the tinkle of kids laughing.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying I’m ready for kids, not by a long shot.  But in places like this, it’s easy to see that future stretched out ahead of me.  I’m excited to be home, and be back to normal.  And I’m excited to live life with the same curiosity and reverence as I did when I was abroad, because quite frankly, there is so much here to discover.