Posting my blog in Germany.

In all the time I’ve been a blogger, I’ve somehow been able to consistently keep up, never letting a whole week go between blogs. Cross-country moves, surgeries and hospitalizations (my own and others’), long trips and short ones, houseguests, the birth of our grandchildren – nothing has prevented me from blogging. Until now.

Yesterday, while I tried once more (unsuccessfully of course) to find out why my last five blogs have failed to feed into my Facebook page automatically, I realized with alarm that it’s been nearly two weeks since my last post. I’d forgotten. During our three-weeks in Europe, I scribbled scads of notes and unearthed internet cafes in the most obscure locales to write eight posts about our trip, but since we’ve been back home, it hasn’t happened. Why is that?

I think in many ways life becomes simpler when we travel. Daily routine things – like cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, keeping up with mail and email and phone messages – are temporarily put on hold. Ahhhh. Then when we arrive back home, the ToDos rise up like an angry, insistent mob clamoring for attention. It can be overwhelming. Especially when coupled with the joy of jet-lag and overall tiredness.

Becoming acclimated again to home takes time. When we stepped off the plane, the climate change alone was shocking. Somehow, our gorgeous North Carolina spring had become another record-breaking, extremely hot and unbearably humid, summer. But there’s one thing that’s different for me this time. For the first time in years, I have a home to which I wanted to return. After just 18 months, we feel settled in our new town and it has become home. And that helps.