Before I begin I have a correction to make from my previous post. Hawaii is actually the first place in Oceania we’ll be visiting. Thanks Dave! 🙂
Our last two weeks in Minnesota were a parade of goodbyes/ see you laters/ sayonaras. We got a lot squeezed into those two weeks including several trips to the fair. Amidst our fare thee wells both sides of our families were going through it too. Dave lost an aunt which definitely left us feeling bereft. We fortunately got to spend some time with her while we were in Florida for the Holidays in 2023 and loss is never easy. His uncle sent us a text, in response to the one we sent him, that read “Thanks we love you guys. We are glad you are still on your dream trip. Do it while you can. You never know what the future holds and when your time in this life will be over. I will miss my wife and will always regret the things we did not get to do.” The fact that he took the time to write that to us in the midst of incredible loss was poignant. We continue this next leg of the adventure in her honor. No regrets!
We celebrated two years of this adventure on Aug 26th with a wonderful dinner with my sisters and their husbands. Where has the time gone? I cannot express my gratitude enough for all the people in our life that have been intentional with us and who have made time for us. Everyone’s time is a precious gift and I don’t take a single second of it for granted!
Here are some things we learned while we were home. We need to stay in one place the whole time we’re home. We were very grateful to everyone that took care of us during the nine weeks we were there and having the consistency and stability that not moving around all the time brings is huge! Next, two months is a long time to be home. And, a full week with either of our families is a lot too. Obviously we loved every minute we were given with everyone and there is a reason the old adage, guests, like fish, start to smell after three days” exists🤣 Another thing we learned was that Dave needs to take more time off while we’re home. He only took two days off during the two plus months we were in the Midwest and one was spent solely on doctors appointments. I know this was difficult this time around, especially since his company was bought and there were a lot of changes around that, and hopefully it’ll be easier next time.
One thing I noticed while in the Midwest, after being in the culture of community that Central and South America exudes for six months, was that the energy in the US, outside of our carefully cultivated circle, reminds me of the crabs in a bucket mentality. In case you haven’t heard of that metaphor it is “the mindset where people try to undermine or pull down others who are trying to succeed or improve their lives.” It doesn’t feel good and hurts my heart to see.
Unfortunately I witnessed an example of this first hand upon our arrival in LAX. There was a pretty terrible altercation that took place in close proximity to us, between two people on the shuttle bus from the plane to the terminal, that continued all the way to baggage claim. We couldn’t get around it. So much hate. I am aware that I am a sensitive person and was severely sleep deprived at the time but there is absolutely no reason for any humans to treat each other the way they were, and they were total strangers! I’m thankful it didn’t escalate further and I don’t know what could have been done to stop it. I saw a post from @therealunscripted this morning on Instagram that said, “Always treat every[one] you meet with kindness for you never know [what] they are going through and check on your strongest friend they carry pain with a smile on their face” Such an important reminder.
Even though we weren’t able to have the time with Dave’s Aunt and Uncle as we had planned, because life called them elsewhere, we made the best of our time in San Pedro, California. After a good long nap we had a delicious lunch at a Mexican restaurant where we practiced our Spanish a little. Afterward, kinda last minute, we were able to meet up with an old friend in the Melrose neighborhood for a drink and then we capped off the day with my first visit to The Getty. It is an enormous place and we arrived later in the day so we spent most of our time there taking in the views and even caught the sunset.
We arrived in Honolulu late Monday night and spent the first couple days in a hotel because our Air BnB wasn’t available. One random thing we noticed at our hotel is that there were several people who were wearing eye patches like they had just had cataract surgery. It was very peculiar and if anyone can shed some insight into why the Waikiki area of Oahu is a magnet for these kinds of surgeries I would welcome any thoughts. My guess is, who wouldn’t want to recover in Hawaii, but who knows.
We were finally able to move into our Air BnB yesterday afternoon and will hopefully start feeling more settled during the next two and half weeks here until we leave for Japan on the 20th. I’m hoping to carry the loving spirit of the previous six months with me through this next leg and beyond. We haven’t been gone this long since our first leg and I’ll be curious to see how it feels differently than before. I will continue to shine my light in the best way possible because that is what the world needs. We have to have more empathy. I leave you with this quote from Chelsea Handler that I read in her most recent book, “The expansion of your belief systems, values, opinions, exposure to different people and places are the seeds to us growing up and out.”
Check in on your people, let them know you love them, see them, and that they matter.
Sending you love wherever you are!
❤️Alison
