Leaving and returning home

I'm barely home from a week at sea. I love how that sounds - 'a week at sea'. It sounds mysterious and full of adventure, when it was actually full of laziness and hours and hours of sleeping, dinners by candlelight that lasted more than thirty minutes, and days of sunning ourselves by the pool.

It was all beyond wonderful, restful and restorative, and I loved every minute but the very best part of it was walking in our back door.

Leaving does that - it enables us to come back home again. It allowed me time to re-appreciate how nourishing the familiar in life can be. My coffee cup, my pillow, my rooms and stuff, and my little dog jumping into my arms, welcoming me home.

BTW, If you don't have a dog, you should consider getting one just for the joy of being greeted so. Everyone needs to be adored now and then.

So I'm home, restored, and today feels like January 1 all over again, room for a fresh start on life. There's laundry, groceries, and a stack of mail, but there's also a calendar with lots of white space, a trip to the library later today, and a considering of menus that will whittle away from our middles the pounds added last week.

One thing I've accomplished this year is tons of reading. I've got more than a dozen books under my belt, and I'll be back soon to tell you about my favorites.