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Homecoming


From beach wedding to barren cupboard - that's what really happens on a homecoming.

After a long weekend away, we returned to a dead car battery (my gift to my wife when pulling her car into the garage to pack for the trip - thanks for bailing me out, AAA) and an empty refrigerator. All rectified in a matter of hours. This return left me thinking about what I miss most when leaving home - the comforts of familiarity.

After an extensive remodeling program last year (the major reason why such a dearth of blog posts), I've never lived in a place so fitting to my habits and routine. Which makes home ever more homey. And it's all a matter of creating a place that fits like a glove to my routines and interests.

In strong contrast, traveling to new places is unknown, exciting, visceral, challenging. The more exotic, the more indelible - it brings the every day into sharper focus in a foreign place, noticing all the details that are uncommon and new thanks to the culture and environment.

This is all to say that travel brings a fresh appreciation of the familiar confines of home, a literal and figurative blank slate ready to fill up with food from the grocery store as well as memories and learnings from faraway places. A homecoming is the right time to reflect on how another part of the world has changed you for the better.

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