Wednesday, May 19, 2010

A Year Ago Today...

I've spent most of this year so far thinking "a year ago today..." and while it might not be exactly a year to the day -- it has been five months of looking back at last year when I was in NYC.
A year ago today, I started school was the first, and possibly most innocent thought that kicked it all off in January.

And a year later, here I am, days away from giving birth to my child whom I have carried since last year, whom I have watched grow inside me, as I too grew with him / her.

A year ago today, my brother and sister-in-law got married
A year ago today, I decided to stop drinking alcohol for a while
A year ago today, I started working with my very first proper client. No more "a little here, a little there."
A year ago today, I got another tattoo

So much can happen in a year. Funnily enough, this has turned out to be the first year we didn't move continents. It is the first year we're not on a plane every month, the first year we're just in one place -- even though it's London...

And bizarrely, though it's London I find myself in, I am quite enjoying being here. You miss so much when you're always moving. Like the characters that decorate your neighborhood, the acquaintances who become friends, the nuances of everyday life that the constant traveler has no time to pick up -- favorite places, people, rituals, habits that can only form in a specific place and time.

Who knows what I'll say a year from now as I look back on these days of waiting for my life to change. But in the mean time, I'm glad for the opportunity to take a moment and just be; for the first time in years, just live like most people do -- without a plane to catch and another life to chase.