Life as we know it...

Life as we know it…

Mercurial…ever changing…transitional

Bringing a mixed bag of chocolates – sweet & bitter

Life has a very interesting way of driving home points it needs to make. Case in point the last 24 hours…I see myself as an observer especially when I am in an airport. I draw into my shell, alert yet not approachable - Reading a book, working on my computer or appearing lost in thought. I observed a group of elderly people who reminded me of “Forrest Gump” walking through the Security…finding excitement in the Security Check…excited over an Aunt Annie’s Pretzel…they were from a “special needs home” and this was their first vacation in 5 years to exciting Sydney.This recent plane ride had been uncomfortable – middle seat followed by a window….and anyone who knows me knows that I need an aisle…so more the need for me to turn inwards. Sitting in my window seat, I see this young person with sad eyes drinking copious amounts of coffee and eating dark chocolate…I wonder what her story is. We get talking and then I find out her story and then I wish I had rather not known…she is flying down to Portland as she found out just this morning that her father (who was only 56) had passed away in his sleep…I see deep sadness, hollowed eyes and gnawing regret that she won’t see him again…I feel helpless…just knowing that I can’t help ease the hurt this stranger is feeling is excruciating…the pain almost becomes personal.

On a personal front, this has been a week of changes. My in-laws are here for the next 10 weeks from India…so life becomes easier and harder all at once. Seeing K2 blossom in their love, while I struggle to maintain the last dregs of my personal space while readily relinquishing the kitchen domain to the MIL…is a lot happening all at once. K1 is in China, so things will be quiet on the home front and manically busy on the work front. Coming to think of it…it’s just Monday night and I feel like it is the middle of the week already (could it be because I spent my entire Sunday in the middle seat of a cramped up airplane, eating glorified finger food they pompously called Tapas while furiously typing away on my computer). Can’t wait to get home and kiss my son good night and put some of these unsettling feelings behind me…