Eat. Pray. Love.

Nope.  I am not Siskel or Ebert (and if you are too young to know who they are don't tell me!).  There will be no giving of thumbs up or down.  Just a simple commentary on my life ... at this moment.  This movie title kinda just sums up my thoughts:  Eat.  Pray.  Love.

Living in this place seems rather normal.  It didn't take long for the adaptation to take hold and make me one with my mother land.  Now, the things that stand out to me are the people ... my people.  As I look back on this period of time that has now become the past ... it's pretty much marked by times of eating ... praying ... and loving.

Eating certain things that bring you back to another time and place.  Eating things that used to not give you heartburn.  Eating things in a certain place for the sake of reliving the past.  Eating new things with old friends.  Eating alongside others that remind you of who you are and where you come from.  This coming Friday, we Elledge's will eat nachos on the floor and watch a movie to commemorate our last "Friday Night in the Big Town" before Addison migrates.  Eating marks time and space.

Praying looks different the older I get.  Now it's more like an exercise of breathing.  Sometimes they are long, deep breaths that relax and sooth.  Sometimes they are fast-paced and highly rhythmic responses to a crisis.  Most times, it's a steady in and out throughout the day.  In and out.  Constant.  Needing it more than needing to eat.

Love.  That's an ever complicated action.  Love makes me hurt, cry, laugh, hope, hunger for more of it.  Love compels me to say more ... or less.  Love begs me to hug longer, listen more, talk less.  Loves drives me to often eat ... or not eat ... to pray ... harder and longer.

Until next time ...