Ludmil and I are spending the summer here in Arroyo Grande, CA. a place I can call home. For many, many years when people have asked me where I am from, I have been stumped for an answer. I have lived in many places. Ludmil and I have lived in four states since we married, 19yrs ago. We feel the love of family and friends all over the country. New York where we have never been, houses our friends Patrick, Karen and Bonnie, Portland ,OR. has to many to mention.. even friends in France and family in Bulgaria, France and Holland.So from coast to coast and over the ocean we have a home of sorts with many people. A very sweet 75 yr. old man and his wife just moved to Prescott,Arizona and told us he feels like his life is starting over, he is filled with a newness he thought he would never feel again… the beginning of a new life he says..what a gift at 75… and for me the same gift just before my 67th birthday. I feel the love and excitement in the voices and faces of people I have not seen for 19 years… I have had the delight of my niece and her husband being so close, and so helpful for our move here. I have already had a visit from our friends in Portland, Julie & David, with more on the calendar for July and Aug. A dear friend is coming to dinner tonite, just for girl talk. My old highschool girl friends are meeting tomorrow night for dinner, there will be about 12 of us I think.. an OLD TIMERS picnic the next day including the men folk..
I became aware as we were making this plan for our summer, that I was planing a trip HOME…it came to me slowly, I saw and felt a smile spread on my face each time I thought about it. I found myself as excited to get here, a place I know well, as excited as I was last year going to France, a place that I know not at all… a place I had dreamed of spending more of my life in… and now though I love France and plan to return as soon as I am able .. I realize that I have a place to call home, and it is here in the central coast a place of my youth, a place I discovered my love for old things, and a place I met that sweet dear man from Bulgaria that has held the “home of my heart” for these past years.
We will return to Texas, we will work in Texas, we will break bread with all our Texas/show friends again and again… we will love when the winter sun warms our faces, when it is cold and windy elsewhere in the world.. and we will count our blessings that we have the privilege to live, and work in the best of two worlds…. if this is our golden years.. I say bring it on… it does not get much better than this.
The photos are in our living room with my niece and nephew.
by Linda
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