Day 29...
Still letting life sink in slowly, mostly because we have not slowed down to let it happen yet. We're still running around and setting up our life here. It's amazing the apparatus that we usually have in place to make our life functional..... It's a gradual process, but when you have to go through it in a short period of time, it's noticeably different.
Meaning....
Since we have been back we have gotten new driver's licenses, set up our vehicle insurance, turned on the electricity to our house, gotten the kids enrolled in school, moved into an apartment, rented a second car, set up membership at the YMCA near our home, called a guy to establish , scheduled a vet appointment for Ashoka, made doctor's appointments for the kids, got internet established in the apartment, made a visit to the bank, and a variety of other things - it's too long a list to enumerate. And we have barely started to get the things done that we need to...
All of that in the midst of visiting family in a different part of the country.
It's been exhausting, in many ways.
Already we have become sad a few times. We really enjoyed the life we had in India. It's made us feel alive in ways we had not before.
Tara keeps saying that she's not sure how it will be living here. It is indeed a place where everyone is busy all of the time (meaning, less true community). I have been working to remind her that this city and this country have been very good to us. I also have reminded her that she is different and will perhaps find others who want to dedicate time to community in ways that she'll frankly need going forth.
Of course, I am far along enough in this process to know that she just wanted to have her concerns heard, so I listened for most of what she expressed. ;-)
The boys are doing well, I am again amazed at their adaptability. They are just ready for whatever is next. You really can learn a great deal from watching children....
Overall, there is a constant elephant in the room..... the promise of new life, the sadness at a way of life recently lost.
Is it an elephant? Maybe it's not. Maybe it is. But as far as what the future holds, we are definitely blind....
As the poem goes....
It was six men of Indostan
To learning much inclined,
Who went to see the Elephant
(Though all of them were blind),
That each by observation
Might satisfy his mind
The First approached the Elephant,
And happening to fall
Against his broad and sturdy side,
At once began to bawl:
“God bless me! but the Elephant
Is very like a wall!”
The Second, feeling of the tusk,
Cried, “Ho! what have we here
So very round and smooth and sharp?
To me ’tis mighty clear
This wonder of an Elephant
Is very like a spear!”
The Third approached the animal,
And happening to take
The squirming trunk within his hands,
Thus boldly up and spake:
“I see,” quoth he, “the Elephant
Is very like a snake!”
The Fourth reached out an eager hand,
And felt about the knee.
“What most this wondrous beast is like
Is mighty plain,” quoth he;
“ ‘Tis clear enough the Elephant
Is very like a tree!”
The Fifth, who chanced to touch the ear,
Said: “E’en the blindest man
Can tell what this resembles most;
Deny the fact who can
This marvel of an Elephant
Is very like a fan!?
The Sixth no sooner had begun
About the beast to grope,
Than, seizing on the swinging tail
That fell within his scope,
“I see,” quoth he, “the Elephant
Is very like a rope!”
And so these men of Indostan
Disputed loud and long,
Each in his own opinion
Exceeding stiff and strong,
Though each was partly in the right,
And all were in the wrong!
