Relative Something

Our friends left us three days ago to return to their home in Guatemala where it is warm and green. You know that a deep connection was made when you feel a part of you is missing after a friend departs. We are experiencing that, times four. Maybe it is amplified by the intense blast of cold temperatures now arriving in their absence. It’s as if a part of us has frozen.

Deep connections that get stretched across great distances will change over time, but they never end. My experience of returning home from Portugal has given me the opportunity to notice how the long-distance connection matures over time. The special people in our lives become so much a part of us that we are never really separated. I get a sense of Ian Rowcliffe in almost everything I do, and thoughts of him are perfused with the spirits of his family and the local friends to whom we were introduced.

The Morales family are now permanently bonded with us and are with us in everything we do from now on. A seed has been planted that has us imagining what steps we must achieve to allow us to travel to Guatemala to visit them there and meet their family and friends. We also feel a strong desire to lure them back to visit us when Wintervale is warm again and thick with green growing things.

I miss young Marco’s laughter and fullness of life, Jose’s endless energy and honest curiosity, Dunia’s brilliantly happy spirit and keen intuition, and Marco Vini’s wise and artistic peacefulness whether working or playing. I keep hearing the beautiful sound of their voices in my head as I go about the return to my old routine.

We are filled with the richness of the gift of new friendship, a connection with a family of precious people. They are gone from us now, but they will never be forgotten. Their spirits continue to permeate more than just our minds at Wintervale, as our horses and Delilah were influenced, as well.

Their visit and the bond of friendship we have received is a truly priceless precious gift.

.

.

.

.

.