Home is where...

Dear Rylan:

Being home is not what I expected. I expected to be more excited about returning to the land of washing machines and dryers, real-beef hamburgers, and dish TV. Only 63 days abroad was able to reshape my thinking: things don't matter. Keep it simple. Do with less. So I find myself reluctant to gather up my stuff and become comfortable in this country where comfort is so common that it is not even considered a blessing anymore.

One thing does make me feel joyous about returning home: loved ones. How welcoming everyone has been! They are so much more excited to have me home than I am to be here because they are THRILLED to have me home. Their joy takes away some of the sting I feel at my abrupt return. The love and kindness of everyone has been palpable, like the sweet taste of the lanzones that were so abundant in the Philippines. Firm and juicy and sweet and warm. Delicious--the fruit there and the spirit of love here.

However, I left people there whom I had grown to love, and who loved me back, even though we had known each other such a short time: My fellow trainees, with whom I endured the ridiculous rules of Peace Corps, with whom I slogged through the drudgery of PC training, and with whom I laughed about the sublime and ridiculous situations in which we found ourselves in that foreign culture; my host family, with whom I shared many a meal, with whom I laughed about the differences between my culture and theirs, and from whom I learned more in a few weeks than I have learned in a long time back home; and the wonderful Filipinos who served as trainers and ambassadors for us trainees--the people who allowed us to ask dumb questions and muck up their language with our errors, and who were interested in how we Americans live and think in relation to their culture.

So here's what I am thinking about life right now: Stuff doesn't matter much. People matter. After air to breathe, food to eat, and water to drink, people are the most important element of our existence. Interactions--both good and bad--are what fill up a day with purpose and feeling.

So, Rylan, relish your relationships. Enrich your life with friends. Cherish your family. Gather up each day's memories and press them between the pages of your mind. Memories will sustain you in those times when you are far away from the ones you love.

Love you bunches,
Mumma