It's the 6th day of my trip. I'm staying in Brussels, Belgium this weekend with Charlotte and her family. We arrived late last night to one of the warmest welcomes I have had in a long time. I felt like a member of the family being received after a long span of time between visits.
Charlotte's mother is one of those people that you can feel looking into your soul when she talks to you. I connected immediately with her when I met her in San Diego over a year ago and in seeing her again on this trip it was as if no time at all had passed, nor was there any feeling of not knowing her very well. She just takes you in and it's the nicest, warmest feeling. One that I realized I would like more of in my life. One of "family".
The funny thing is--or perhaps not so funny--I don't feel this way very often. Obviously, because I live over 1500 miles away from my family, but also because even when I am with my family I don't have this feeling like they see right into me and "know" me.
That realization has come to me over the past few months and I have begun to take some steps toward "getting there" with them, but honestly, sometimes I feel like it's not something you should have to "work" on. It just is or isn't. Like with Charlotte's mom. She barely even speaks English and yet there is this feeling of innate closeness with her.
I love it when I connect with someone on this level. I connect very easily with many people on many levels. THIS level, however, is a very special one. Actually, (and I say this in all honesty), almost every single one of you on this reading list is a person that I share this level of connectivity with. Others I don't allow into my words and thoughts so openly. All of you I know understands me already--probably before even reading.
I want more closeness in my life like this when I get home. I want to draw in each of you to me like the kindred spirits that you are. I want to make you the family that you've all become to me.
It's funny how as I've gone through this short, but amazing 6 days, I feel one or two of you walking with me in a certain place, and another of you with me in a different moment. Not only in this journal, but truly in my heart, I carry you with me as I go. And I hope to always have you as my "San Diego Family".
I'm SO blessed in my life. I'm so blessed to feel "at home" wherever I go because I am becoming my own "home". I always have been, of course,--it's just taken this long (and coming this far alone, I guess) to realize it.
Thank you for being a part of my "home"---no matter where I am.
