Back home and ready to go...I think

Well, now, that was a whirlwind couple of weeks--a visit from friends to NYC, a very short jaunt to the other side of the country, and then, almost so predictably that I could count one, two, three as we got off the plane, I went down with a stomach virus.  But it gave me time to think, and now I'm ready for daily life again.

Main receiving room, Ellis Island

We enjoyed being tour guides with our friends A & a (a mother and daughter who lived next door to us eleven years ago in Georgia).  They inspired us to go to some New York spots we hadn't seen in a very long time, like the top of the Empire State Building--or ever, like Ellis Island!  We packed an amazing amount of NYC into five days.  

A very special-order Lego set in the Empire State Building gift shop.  I confess that I still look at sets like this with the eyes of a kid!  

But I think that for all of us, our favorite part of the five days was Sunday afternoon, when we took some time off and C.Z. went scootering in the park with her first best friend.  We were comfortable enough together before, but I think that's when we fully reconnected. You never know what's going to happen when you meet best friends from the past after a long absence. For one thing, at a head taller than me, little "a" is certainly little no longer!  But if anything, I think I appreciate these friends even more than I did when we were next door neighbors.  I appreciate that A makes no pretensions and lives a simple life, but is quietly cheerful and wise.  I appreciate that a is still very much herself, even though both a and C.Z. will be fourteen soon. It was a delight to me to observe certain mannerisms in this teenager that I recognized from age two! Perhaps it's harder to see in one's own child, but I'm sure C.Z.'s two-year-old personality was already established in certain ways as well.  Isn't it wonderful how, in our basic personalities, we are what we are, and we can rest in God's having made us that way?

Then there was that quick little business trip during which we followed Bob to the west coast. Three days, four plane flights, a nice dinner with a friend, a whole lot of appointments, and enough coffee to keep us going despite confused sleep schedules and flight delays.  But still, there was time enough to see that there's something absolutely stunning about the West, even from a plane window.  I do think that my vision of Heaven must take something from the idea of high mountains at sunset, even though I know that Heaven isn't so much a place as it is the presence of God.  But it's a place, too, because God promises us a new Heavens and a new Earth.  Lots of people I know think that the new Jerusalem is New York, but I'll leave that one alone for now.

We came home to find fall in full bloom, as it were.  I got the refrigerator nicely filled with CSA veggies, farmers' market fare, and Fresh Direct, and then...promptly lost my appetite because of a virus and slept for two days.  I woke up yesterday morning after the first nap of the day to notice that the ceramic gourd bowl that A had given me looked quite fetching on my radiator with winter squash inside it and "our" fire-tipped maple tree in the background.  So I reached for my camera and took some photos of it.  

Then after my third or fourth nap of the day, between desultory bouts of reading, I woke to find sunset light reflected on my bookshelves and cabinets.  Now, if there's anything I'm attached to in my physical surroundings, it's these lovely cabinets that a friend of a friend built when we first moved in.  They glow warmly in the sun, and they house quite a number of beloved books.  So I reached for the camera and took a couple more photos.  

My glasses, which I usually wear only at night, aren't strong enough, so most of the photos were out of focus.  But I did get enough reasonably focused ones to get some of the feeling of dreaminess from yesterday, between naps and reading bits of Henri Nouwen or Owen Barfield.  There's something about sleeping, and about being sick, that causes one to regain perspective, so I spent a lot of time thinking and feeling like a weaned child with its mother, which is not a bad way to spend a Sunday afternoon.  Today I'm ready to go again...I think.

This is usually Bob's nap chair, but he generously shared it with me this weekend while I slept.  I hope not to spend quite so much time there today.