Homeward Bound

Home, where my thought’s escaping
Home, where my music’s playing
Home, where my love lies waiting
Silently for me – Simon and Garfunkel

As we left Costa Rica for our visit to California a couple of weeks ago, some friends of ours here wished us a “good vacation!” It was weird to think of it that way. Though theoretically it was true, we were still really going home. It’s only been a few months, after all, and no matter how much we’re settling into our life abroad, we’ll always have our roots in California. And that couldn’t have been more apparent as we were welcomed and embraced by all of the fantastic and freaky people we call our family and friends. Of course during our whirlwind tour of California, we didn’t get to see everyone we wanted to and we didn’t get to spend enough time with those that we did, but we’re grateful for even the smallest of moments. Thanks to all of you who made it so special, and big hugs to those of you who we must wait to see the next time around.

We realized a lot of things on our “vacation” back home. The dichotomy of our past and present existence became even more apparent as we touched down in Houston – land of all things excessive and BIG – big state, big city, big airport, big food, big hair, big folks. In contrast, Costa Rica is known only for the enormity of its bugs. The consumer in me began to twitch as we passed the countless novelty shops lining the terminals (I totally forgot that I “needed” all this stuff! Where’s Target?!), and my tummy started to bloat from the Starbucks soy chai I drank and the truck-tire-sized plate of food I was served for lunch (note: salads are not lite meals in Texas). The changes we’ve made, the things we took for granted, the things we’re happy to live without, the things we miss – these realizations all started here during our six-hour layover in the Longhorn State, stuck in a terminal with a 7-foot bronze statue of George H. Bush (you might guess into which category we put him).

Of course, we haven’t been gone long enough to have morphed far from the urbanized California bohos that we are, but we’ve found that we are experiencing things anew wherever we find ourselves. If being in Texas was jarring, being in California was both comforting and enlightening, and helped us to continue cultivating a greater appreciation for where we came from and a keener perspective of where we currently find ourselves and where we’re going. Being home was both wonderful and wacky -- we saw so many people and did so many things and had so much fun, but we were reminded just how much our life has slowed down. The abundance that used to fill our days and nights and weekends and the speed at which we used to fill them is becoming a more foreign experience (though it has not yet been wholly extradited from our pyches and predispositions).

However, we are indeed noticing changes in ourselves, and our orientation is slowly transforming. We are becoming a part of where we live, and naturally we’re beginning to see and experience things from that perspective. So even though we were at home back in California, we found ourselves feeling just a bit out of place and longing for home in Costa Rica. This was actually a consoling feeling, a reassurance that we had truly made the right decision for ourselves and were acclimating to our new life and environment well. Ultimately our vacation helped to confirm that we are blessed with two homes -- one in California and one in Costa Rica – and that our hearts are truly in both places.