Final Thoughts About My Quest

I've been home in Brooklyn for three days now, just enough time to digest everything before I leave for San Francisco in the morning.

It's good to be back with my friends and my family again. The trip lasted only fifteen days, but I still haven't really adjusted back to NYC living yet. I also noticed that I am craving carbs more than ever (anyone reading this who was there or is still there will know what I mean!) I also miss cooking my pasta dish for so many people and seeing them really enjoying what I made for them. (Maybe that's just an Italian thing, I don't know...)

I will always be amazed of this one thing in particular; that the children at the shelter constantly have volunteers coming in and going out of their lives, yet they handle it so well. The ability to have such an attachment to someone, to be open enough to hug and kiss them, play with them, and want to know everything about them, with the knowledge that they probably won't be in your life for very long, is something I still have not learned how to do too well. That truth makes me cry a little when I think about it. One of the bravest things one can do is to learn that no one is going to be there forever, and that we need to just enjoy the moments that we do have together on this earth.

To have the strength to let go of the people we grow attached to in our lives, whether we've known them our entire lives or for two weeks, is one of the most admirable characteristics a human being can cultivate.

As for the rest of me, I feel as if I know myself even less than I did before I left. I thought I had a lot of things figured out already, only to return with the realization that I really don't know much of anything at all. And there is so much more to learn.

XO

Val