Leaving On A Jet Plane

And so we travelled this week past.  It’s a journey the three of us are accustomed to making; my thirteen year old son, three year old daughter and I. We had a wonderfully swift and comfortable flight with Virgin Atlantic.  Before we knew it we were passing through passport control at London Heathrow; once more in the land that feels like home as soon as we touch down on the runway.

London is a city of soaring temperatures at the moment. We’ve been walking, riding the tube, sitting up late at night in my brother’s garden and remembering what it’s like to exist without permanent air-conditioning! In Los Angeles, where you move by car from one air conditioned venue to another, living with the heat is a very different experience. 

It’s so lovely to be back. When I’m about to return I always wonder if England will seem small and somehow shrunken after the vastness of the American West. It never does though.  It’s more that something internally shifts and I breathe an unseen sigh of relief. Normality is restored and all’s right with the world once more. 

Now that we've been living away from home for a while, I've found our annual summer visit to be supremely helpful.  As it's not very often, it doesn't  preclude the opportunity to settle and learn to face new challenges. However the regular pattern of the trip maintains a crucial connection with the past- so that we don’t forget who we are- an important thing for us all to remember!