Forgive me if this next blog is a tad sentimental and philosophical but after a particularly bad night of homesickness I have awoken with some insights…

I feel extraordinarily fortunate to have friends on this side of the world. Travelling is not always easy. Whilst it can be exciting to see new places and experience cultural differences,  it is also challenging and overwhelming to be dealing with the unfamiliar…

Over the weekend I was in Holland visiting with Laura and her family. Laura was an exchange student who lived for 5 months with us 2 years ago. She was a shy and reticent girl but nonetheless absorbed her new surroundings with reserved delight. Her family came at the end of her stay and travelled around Australia for 5 weeks. I  made a connection with her mother and despite some language difficulties,  we understood  one another, through our hearts… I was nervous about visiting them but needn’t have been as they were so very welcoming and hospitable.  A heart connection knows no time or distance…

Yvonne and Will were keen to show me around their area. They live in the countryside about 2 hours from Amsterdam. It is mostly dairy farms and surprisingly corn fields! We drove through lush green forests as well and I felt as if I were to walk through these forests, I would come across the Gingerbread house or the Big Bad Wolf in Grandmas cottage! There were also canals that ran through the villages and alongside the roads as well. They were  peaceful waterways littered with ducks and water plants.

The villages were very orderly, with similiar style houses and every garden well tended and manicured with neat hedges, lawns and flowering plants. The Dutch obviously take pride in their environment and are well attached to cleanliness. Even in the shopping precincts and squares and the market we visited, there was no rubbish to be seen. They have recycling bins everywhere!

The market in particular  was a delight. The weather was still very warm and the sky clear and blue. It was the perfect backdrop for the bright, colourful displays of fresh fruit, vegetables and flowers. I couldn’t resist and bought a huge bag of shiny red capsicums for 1 euro and cooked us all stuffed capsicums for dinner that night. We also bought 2 huge punnets of strawberries for 1 euro as well!

It is always a relief to be able to pick up where you leave off and travelling from Amsterdam to Liessel with Laura in the back seat, we chattered like magpies! In fact I  think that was the most conversation in one sitting, I’ve ever had with Laura, so maybe she was pleased to see me!

Now I am in Vienna and again I  have been taken aback by the wonderful welcome  I have received  by my friend Margret and her family. I  actually cried when she hugged me at the airport, as I instantly felt again that heart connection we have. Once more  I  feel the blessing of friendship and am grateful.

I have been to Vienna  4 times in my life and each time it feels the same. It is a clean, safe and cultured city. It always feels calm here and people are polite and accepting. It is also the easiest  city to get around with an underground train system that is fast and efficient.

But back to my homesickness… what was that really about and why did I feel it? It probably  didn’t help that Margret and I  Facetimed with Jess (my daughter) and we both wished she was here with us. Jess is the reason we are friends with Margret  as she was their nanny in 2007. They adpoted her as another daughter and consequently  became family with us too.

Hearing about what is happening back home is always hard as I then wish I  was there to help out or whatever. And certainly  there is stuff happening back home that concerned me… I  did what I thought was the next best thing then and wrote an email to my parents and sisters. I  also talked with a close friend on messenger and through the ether she held me…then I cried myself to sleep, feeling very far away and helpless and wondering what the hell I was doing on the other side of the world…

Surprisingly my sleep was sound but my dreams were busy and full of all my family members. When I  eventually awoke there was a reply email from one of my sisters. So beautiful were her words to me that I  teared up again. I felt loved….

This thing called love is a wondrous and mysterious thing because I  realise that it doesn’t matter where you are in the world the people whom you love are always with you –  right there in your heart, in your thoughts, and even in your dreams…

A heart connection is a heart connection and knows no physical boundaries so homesickness is really just an illusion of the mind. It is an indulgence of self pity and an attachment to place. I feel very grateful to have experienced  such a wave of love from across the seas…