I never really make them. However, I feel this year I will resolve to begin blogging... more diligently. It's not that I have great things to say, it's more a matter of having a journal... something to look back at and smile on. I love remembering small things-day to day happenings that I wouldn't remember without having them recorded.
Tonight I met with a friend of mine I was in Spain with. Exactly a year ago we were on a plane to Spain not to return to the U.S. for over 4 months. We lived next door to each other, shared a lot of night walks throughout the city and even got to go to each other's houses (rare in Spain). I'm really not one to journal, nor is she, but we both kept them in Spain. She wrote daily and I wrote a few times weekly, usually reflecting back on days I didn't write. Tonight, at a local coffee shop we sat in a booth for 3 hours reading old journal entries to each other and talking about our experience. This, added to my family receiving a package from my host mom today, and I have been close to tears multiple times. It was an experience I will never forget and never be able to really have again.
When I heard news of the package arriving, I called home and made my dad open it and tell me what was inside. Everything was written in Spanish so he struggled a bit but it's a lot of my favorite sweets from Spain. There's this special Christmas candy called "turron," that my hostmom had a surplus of. She gave me some almost every night for probably 2 months. Now I have 4 more boxes of it :) There was also a handmade card from one of her granddaughters... Ana that said "te echo de menos," which means she misses me! I can't wait to get home and see it for myself.
While going through my journal entries tonight I came across a few "moments" that I will never forget. They weren't events, or things people said, they were mere moments that forever stand still for me:
--taking a walk on a beautiful winter night and sitting on top of the acueduct watching the snow fall over the city
--standing at the top of a staircase for hours with Kendra and watching the sunset over the mountains with a street violinist playing in the background
--sitting on an old stone staircase hidden from the world and watching the sunset behind an old castle.
Reflecting on these moments I find that what makes them stand still for me is serenity. They were moments that allowed me to forget the rest of the world for a short time and simply be at peace. I could smile at the beauty of the world and feel it reach my core.
I didn't reflect in my journal as much as I wish I would've but came across an entry from spring break. For spring break, a friend and I traveled to London and Normandy with my dad and a family friend. Kendra and I have both been to Europe a few times, but this was their first. Here's what I wrote:
It's so interesting to be here, in Europe, with my dad and Daryl. It's fun to see and hear their reactions as they experience sites here for the first time, things we don't have back home, such as the beautiful old cathedrals, the rich history, and all the old buildings--I had a similar reaction once, but after all my travels, these things no longer put awe inside me. Today I was reflecting on this and how sad it is that I am no longer taken aback by these things. I realized that many things do still put awe inside me, it's just no longer these. I've seen so many things that humans have created, that now many of the things I find to be incredible are much smaller--it's the nice people we meet, the random acts of kindness, unexpected friendliness, witnessing people watching out and caring for others, etc. These things always seem to catch me by surprise as they seem so rare and unexpected in the world my generation has grown up in.
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