Four years ago, Dr. W pointed at the rug covering most of her office floor and made me look at her. “You cannot avoid or even shortcut the pain. You cannot get from where you are to where I am by stepping over or skirting around. It’s just too big. The only way out is through.”
For a long time, I carried the image of her rug with me, comforted by its finite boundaries and the inevitability of reaching the other side if I just kept moving. But four years in, I have realized that my rug is as wide and as deep as the ocean. I have no idea how far I am across and I can’t reach the bottom to rest. I need a break and I’m taking it in the warm and beautiful home of our warm and beautiful neighbors, who have already opened their hearts to me and shushed my teary words of gratitude with “No te preocupes. We look forward to being part of the next chapter of your life.”
Photographs, as always, cannot do justice to beauty, but here are a few to give you a feel for my good fortune. Some are courtesy of my new friend, Joe Pabst, who has been doing a much better job than I have of documenting this lovely land.
Intriguing! So glad you broke through and are doing this daring adventure! Keep us all informed. I bet your Spanish is already 100 times better!