Home Thoughts from Abroad

Home Thoughts from Abroad

Oh, to be in England
Now that April's there,
And whoever wakes in England
Sees, some morning, unaware,
That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf
Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf,
While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough
In England - now!

And after April, when May follows,
And the whitethroat builds, and all the swallows!
Hark, where my blossomed pear-tree in the hedge
Leans to the field and scatters on the clover
Blossoms and dewdrops - at the bent spray's edge -
That's the wise thrush; he sings each song twice over,
Lest you should think he never could recapture
The first fine careless rapture!
And though the fields look rough with hoary dew
All will be gay when noontide wakes anew
The buttercups, the little children's dower
- Far brighter than this gaudy melon-flower!

~ Robert Browning

I thought this was a fitting title for my first post in my new home. Apparently, Browning was feeling nostalgic for his homeland when he wrote this. I think he lived in Italy after his wife died.
Now, here I am, on the last day of April, living in England. I'm sure I must have lived here in another life. Even though it is strange and different, it also feels familiar somehow. As I walk down the street, tiny pink and white petals are shaken from the trees by the breeze, and it looks like it is snowing flowers. Absolutely poetic. It feels like I am in a dream, but I am awake.

Olden days

One nice thing about aging is that you don't have to lose all the other ages you have been. Each new era or phase in your life brings its own challenges and rewards. You can always retain your younger selves, in the form of memories, experience, life lessons learned or yet to be learned.
The outer shell, your body, of course, will inevitably show the signs of wear and tear. Taking care of your body is essential. But accepting the aging of the shell is just as important. To deny that is to deny an authentic part of who you are at any given point in your life!