Appreciating Friends and Family

(Warning! Deep Thoughts^™ follow.) Traveling a quarter-way around the world has brought into stark relief how important the family and friends that are closest to me are. The thought of living as a tourist in Europe for the indefinite future is certainly appealing, and it’s something we seriously considered when planning this year, but some of the best times we’ve had have been with our family and friends who’ve come to visit us.

As amazing as traveling is, without deeper interpersonal relationships, we’d really be missing out on something in life. Maintenance of those relationships is key, which I’m finding out is increasingly easy to take for granted as I age and friends and family move away or our common interests diverge. For people that you see every day, it’s easy to develop a relationship – hearing the ongoing narrative of that person’s life and developing a trust through conversations that grow more personal the more you talk. For people that aren’t as conveniently placed in your life, it requires a certain degree of intention. I’m finding that with each visit from family and friends from the States that intention is very much worth it.

To all the people who have crossed (or are planning to cross) the pond to come visit us or have made time in their own travel schedule for us to drop in on them, we really appreciate it, and we really, really appreciate you.

From time to time, we will see something and say, “oh man, so-and-so would love this, take a picture!” So, here are a few pictures some of our friends and family will in particular appreciate, just to let you know that even though we aren’t messaging you daily, we’re still thinking about you.