Mist Over The Morning

"Cherish all your happy moments; they make a fine cushion for old age."
--Booth Tarkington, American novelist and dramatist

Apologies for being "out of blip" for the past few days, Blippers - my computer was on the blink, and we spent much of our weekend at the Mac doctor in Hong Kong working on repairs - hopefully all is well now, and I'll be posting a couple of Back Blips this week to get caught up: Xin Tian Di and Trip To The Nail Shop will get you started. Most importantly, I hope to get around to all your journals very soon to see what's been going on in your worlds and the World of Blip!

One of the most wonderful things about getting home is the fresh clean smell of the air when I get back up on the hill. Last night it was raining when I pulled in, and the smell of the grass and trees made me stop for a moment -- and just breathe. Among all the many good reasons to come home, this has to be in the top five! For those of you who shared my blip on Zhongshan, PRC last week, you can see for yourselves why we value the clean fresh air of home and the green that we wake up to every morning here on the hill in Corning.

I'm in the throes of the turbo-jetlag that comes with a flight home from Asia, so was up at 3:00am and out of bed at 5:00am this morning. Unfortunately, there's no "cure" for jetlag except time - it usually takes a couple of days before I can form coherent sentences and a full week to have it totally behind me. But one of the perks of being up with the birds is that I get to see mornings like this! I'm not ordinarily a morning person, but I do appreciate why people love their morning time, my husband among them. There's definitely a peace and beauty to mornings like this that are rarely found at other times during the day.

I have to head out tomorrow, down to the traffic and congestion of Virginia, but for today I'll drink in the green and the fresh air up here on the hill and look forward to being back in just a week or so for a longer visit with our whole gang. These are the times we lean into while coping with the madness of China, and morning's like this make the long trip home all the more worth while.

We may have a busy, happy life many miles away on the other side of the world, but there will never come a time when we don't long to return to our house on the hill to breathe in the air, smell the freshness of the grass and watch the trees emerge through the mist over the morning.