Present

The photo above popped up in my Facebook feed this morning, posted exactly four years ago today. I remember that day so well, I had seen the profusion of buttercups flowering in Parku i Madh (aka "Big Park") in Tirana and took the kids there for a combination Easter/Valerie turns 3 photo shoot. The exuberance of the blossoming seemed truly magical to me. 

I am still stunned sometimes by how much I miss Albania. I've been nostalgically reading Peace Corps blogs like this one (I look at the author's photo and see my dad 45 years ago! Kind of!) Our life in Tirana with two small kids was very different in some ways from what these PCVs describe, as young single people living in villages or smaller cities. But a lot of it resonates. I'm not sure if it's a form of escapism, to which I am far too prone, or what.  

The kids in Boyacá

Someone asked me the other day, how do you like living in Bogotá? I said, "on a scale of 1 to 10, maybe a 3..." (**I should clarify that I was having a bad moment during a bad day; it can range up to 7/10). We like Colombia so much better when we can get out of the city. At the same time I think it's important to try to live in the moment and be fully present. I need to remind myself of that.