It's time to go home. Sitting on a night ship as it plows through the North Sea on its way from The Netherlands to the UK, where we will catch a plane back to Sydney, I type this post with an odd mix of feelings. My life is so different than it was when I lived here in Europe all those years ago. Reconnecting with old friends after many years of searching, learning, sinking and swimming, I realize that my life is now just as rewarding as I'd hoped it ever would be.
I am not just a middle-aged man, losing his hair where it counts and gaining it where it doesn't, often lost in the breathtaking race of human life, fighting the thicket of insignificance, rejoicing in the experience of what it means to be human. I am the worthy sum of many parts. I am who I am because of where I have been. I am a product of what I have seen and whom I have known.
All of the diverse and equally wonderful people who then and now welcomed me into their homes, their lives and their hearts, even after so many years, have shaped me. They have taught me lessons. They have given me a voice. They have shown me how to be a man and a human. For that, I am indebted to them to an amount I doubt I can ever repay.
It is unlikely I would be the person, partner and father I am today, were it not for these people. And so, Mark, Max, Jenny, Karin and Neil, I thank you. And I look forward to seeing you all again, only with less delay and perhaps on a different continent.
Thank you for sharing your beautiful vacation with us.
Posted by: Custom Term papers | 20 December 2009 at 11:06 PM
Nice post. Great that you have a good vacation. Safe trip home!
Posted by: John | 02 June 2009 at 07:21 AM