Outside Looking In

February 8, 2012 at 12:00 pm | Posted in Bun, Lollipop, Photo Tuesday, Transylvania | 9 Comments
Tags: Children, Creativity, Expats, Family, Kids, Life, Motherhood, Perspectives, Photography, Romania

I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead;
I lift my eyes and all is born again.
— Sylvia Plath, “Mad Girl’s Love Song”

The honeymoon period? Where we were enamored with the exotic newness of Romania? Well, it’s over. The books said this would happen. But, honestly, I thought it had skipped us. Skipped me.

Not so.

I long to buy the same brand of jelly at the grocery store from one month to the next. I long for people to obey a stop sign. I long for inches and ounces. I am an outsider looking in at this culture, this society, these strangers, and wondering if I fit. Or how I fit. Or if I even want to fit.

And then, with one call, a friend shows up to help free our car from the latest deluge of snow. A magic show and a bus trip around the city enamor the children with their school all over again. A lost mitten placed on our doorstep by an anonymous neighbor comforts my bruised, exhausted soul.

I remember that I am happy here. That I want to be here, that we want to be here.

I look in the back corner of my mind and find reserves of strength and patience. I see the ways my children accept so much: innocent, curious, honest. I notice how we have built a home here, with jars of beans, stacks of craft projects, and cups of tea to cut through every evening’s chill.

I look in so that I can look out. And see that “all is born again.”

Where do you look for inspiration, motivation, or rejuvenation? How do your children (or anonymous neighbors) help? And what’s your favorite kind of tea?

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Fluffy Bunnies in Romania:
Read the tales. See the photos.