A year ago today
We flew home.
Well, home to North Carolina. (Home is New York. At least I think it is.)
To a snowstorm that actually prevented us from getting home.
From 80 degrees to 9 degrees in one flight.
From the warm hearts of Danilo and Vivi to a cold hotel off Route 40, shielded from the deep freeze.
Home.
Where you feel at home
except you don’t.
Because you have to start reading labels again to know what chemicals are in your food in the US
and the excessiveness feels like a tsunami battering your skin
and the Spanish just
STOPS
in a deafening silence.
The routine feels mundane
“How was your trip?” seemed as bizarre as the mosquito bites that I scratched underneath my heavy winter boots.
I still daydream of sitting on the beach with Maria Olga, Simon and Mario, receiving Latino sense of time like a regalito to cherish
And Christmas with the Garates, picking up loving gestures from a family that embraced us as if we were their own.
Reflecting on where this past year went and when we will return, next time with our new son.
Does time fly as we do?
A little piece of me is in a calle in Quito, in a cafe in Cuenca, in a drop of sand in Ayampe.
For always.
About the Author: Missy Gluckmann is the founder of Melibee Global and Better Abroad. She and her husband, Tony, lived in Cuenca, Ecuador for two months. Her most recent title is Hudson’s mommy! You can read more about her here.
If you’d like to learn more about processing re-entry, here is a tool to consider.