…where the heart is

I get homesick randomly. Two days ago in the grocery store there were perfectly ripe plums for sale. I don’t like plums but my mom does, and the smell of them like that reminded me of her instantly. It took me back to any number of cross-country car rides my family took while I was growing up. And since dad didn’t believe in stopping for food we always had an ice chest full of tuna salad to last a lifetime (YUCK), boiled eggs, and fruit. Apples, grapes…plums.

So I was a little homesick for a moment. Struck by a mental picture of my mom.

When I was climbing Franz Josef glacier my thoughts were to my dad. He loves that kind of stuff…and of all the nature stuff he knows I’m not sure what he knows about glaciers. But I think he would have enjoyed it. So in that way, he was with me in the south island.

And then of course there are family outings. Even though I know they won’t stop having them because I’m not there to participate, I always have a bit of a sting…a surge of love and melancholy when I hear about all the family stuff I’m missing out. Today is my sister’s birthday and so this weekend the family went out to the fair.

I can see it in my minds eye…my sister excited to show the girls new things, my dad cracking silly jokes, my mom stopping at art booths, ced commenting on food. And me…here reading about it.

My time here is quickly receding into a handful of weeks. And while I’ve come to love many aspects of my life here in New Zealand enough to make my departure sad, I will be happy to get hug my nieces (who may not remember me), talk to my parents without thought of phone bills, eat my brother in law’s cooking, and play scrabble with my sister…ordinary things, family things…our things…neglected too long.