Loved Ones and New Days

I love this photo of Pops and his Dad. Like the two of them, it says so much with out saying much at all.

We were most blessed to have my in-laws come for a springtime stay this past month. They brought gifts from the States (English magazines, candy, and steel-cut oats were the height of excitement!), as well as love and hugs and affection. It feels good to be loved on by friends and family when living halfway across the world.

The weather while they were here was unbelievably beautiful and sunny, making for lunches outside, promenades to see the creek and the cows and rousing games of demolition petanque (Like a kamakaze bocci ball sort of game that the menfolk devised. Stay alert. That's's my advice ... stay alert.).

Whilst here, we also took a rather epic train trip to the northern Ligurian area of Italy. We had three connections each way and anyone who has traveled by European rail knows that it's no joke. The train roles in and you have 2-3 minutes to locate the correct car and board with all 7 seven people in your party plus luggage and bags ... while dodging other travelers, trying to discern all of the directions in foreign languages, and keeping the family circus intact and alive. It's intense.

I have some lovely photos and memories to post for posterity on our time in Italy. It was beautiful, as Italy insists on. I did, however, manage to develop a pretty severe migraine while there that kept me in bed a bit and set me back some. It's two weeks on and I am still avoiding light (and the computer), napping and into bed by early evening. It's a bummer, but whatdya gonna do. Needless to say, lengthy blogging time will come later.

Have any of you had an illness or setback while traveling or during a big event? Found that you had to readjust expectations? Find new ways to trust and pray and be thankful? It seems I've had basket-full of health challenges and issues these past couple of years and it can get me down when they flare. But it also pushes me to pray more for others ... because I get so sick of thinking about how I feel, blah, blah, blah. And always ... this is a good and rich thing.

Happy springtime.

Light is sweet; how pleasant to see a new day dawning. 

Ecclesiastes 11:7