Familia en Espana

Michael once explained to me that one of the coolest moments of his life, was when his parents took a bit over a week, and traveled all the way to New Zealand (where he was living for a year) to visit him.

There is something extremely gratifying about people you love dropping their daily routines to show you that they care about what you’re doing.

So when my sister and her children decided to meet her husband in Spain during his 2-week R&R from deployment, I started jumping around like a little girl on a sugar high. Sharing my foreign experiences through Facebook, my blog, Skype, Twitter, etc., doesn’t exactly compare to sharing them in real time, real life.

As the family, minus my 9-year old nephew vacationed off to Palma Island for a week, Michael and I had a once in a lifetime chance to take care of Zane abroad and settle into our new home for our second month here in Spain.

I should not forget to include how I cried at the airport when everyone arrived in Valencia, or how I watched Zane and Jada live it up in Spanish cities with their true adventurous and child-like spirits. Nor should I forget to mention the incredible breakfast we shared as a family at Jennifer’s Airbnb listing one morning–Chase cooked, kids still asleep, sun heating the terrace… then finishing up the family’s stay in Barcelona with a winning €8/each breakfast on Carrer de la Creu Coberta. The train rides, the awkward I honestly had no idea what that lady just told us to do moments. The walking, the cooking, the laughing.

My time here will soon come to an end due to visa restrictions. And so the journey continues. It doesn’t so much matter to where or with what, but with who. Spain is unbelievably lovely, in so many ways. But the only real way to experience such a place, or any other place on earth is with people. Real people that are right there next to you. Whether they are in the kitchen making coffee, running with you to the beach, day-dreaming with you on a Mediterranean coastal train, or cheering with you at a barrio riot. The only way to go through life is to go through it with the same creatures that are suffering, laughing, learning, and breathing right next to you.

I wonder about home. I hope it’s true what they say.
Home is where your heart and mind agreed to be, in harmony.
Happiness is not a State to arrive at, but the best method of traveling.

I’m not sure if I’ve ever loved my life so much, or maybe loved the people in it so much. For all of the pain and suffering that we experience past, present or future. Never lose the connections you have with people. Remember that the material possessions in your reach will never give you satisfaction. Life itself is enough. We are the universe. And it’s all connected.
Don’t lose that connection.

-C